Several X, formerly Twitter, accounts disappeared and were later restored on Tuesday, sparking concerns about free speech.
Elon Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur, took over the social media platform in a highly scrutinized purchase in 2022, when he bought it for $44 billion, took the company private and immediately implemented controversial changes. They included eliminating much of Twitter's staff, temporarily suspending some journalists from the platform and reinstating many of its previously banned users, such as Donald Trump.
Musk, who said he bought the platform to "help humanity" and make it the most respected advertising platform, has contemplated a shift in its leadership since December 2022, when he published a poll on Twitter asking the platform's users if he should step down as CEO. Musk promised to "abide by the results" of the survey. More than 57 percent of respondents said he should step down.
On Tuesday, a handful of X users' accounts were suspended for apparently violating X's rules. However, it is unclear what rule the accounts broke that led to their suspension.
Newsweek has reached out to X for comment.
The affected users include journalists Ken Klippenstein of The Intercept, Steven Monacelli of the Texas Observer, Alan MacLeod of MintPress News, blogger Rob Rousseau and the TrueAnonPod podcast. A handful of meme and parody accounts that poke fun at the Tesla CEO and his allies have also been suspended, including @zei_squirrel and @theliamnissan.
Senior media reporter at The Daily Beast, Justin Baragona noted the suspension of Klippenstein and Monacelli saying, "So Twitter apparently just banned @kenklippenstein and @stevanzetti, among other journalist accounts."
Daily Dot tech reporter Mikael Thalen shared a statement this morning from Monacelli, who said he was unaware that he had been suspended.
"I haven't received any communications from Twitter/X about why I have been suspended. I can't think of anything I've posted lately that would be worthy of suspension. Although I have written multiple critical reports about Twitter/X and Elon Musk in recent months." Monacelli said.
However, in the hours after Monacelli and others whose accounts had been suspended, the accounts seemingly have now been restored.
"It appears that the reason I was unbanned is that Elon Musk responded to a post by Jackson Hinkle, a far-right influencer who regularly posts misinformation and conspiracy theories. This website is absolutely cooked," Monacelli wrote on X.
Musk replied to a post from political commentator Jackson Hinkle who addressed the suspension of the accounts.
"Why are accounts critical of ISRAEL being suspended?" Hinkle wrote on X.
Musk replied, "I will investigate. Obviously, it is ok to be critical of anything, but it is not ok to call for extreme violence, as that is illegal. (Apart from the "UN Exemption", where officials from countries recognized by the UN can say what they say at the UN)."
"For the record, I do not personally agree with your views. Nonetheless, the point of freedom of speech is allowing those whose views you disagree with to express those views," Musk added.
Since the suspension of the accounts, #freespeech has been trending and used to bring attention to the issue of free speech on the social media platform.
X user Tiberius said, "This is a complete joke.@elonmusk pretends to be an advocate of free speech but he has merely created a different kind of bias—one that favours forever wars and US Imperialism. Reinstate @zei_squirrel now!"
Editor of Current Affairs Nathan J Robinson wrote on X, "This is Orwellian and alarming. "Free speech" does not mean "free speech for those I agree with." It means allowing dissident viewpoints to flourish. It's deeply troubling to see this kind of censorship become so common on here."
This is not the first time accounts have been suspended, just after Musk's buyout in 2022, Musk temporarily cut off the accounts of The New York Times' Ryan Mac, The Washington Post's Drew Harwell, CNN's Donnie O'Sullivan, The Intercept's Micah Lee, Mashable's Matt Binder, Business Insider's Linette Lopez, sports and political commentator Keith Olbermann and independent journalists Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster.
At that time, the social media platform gave no public explanation of the decisions. When visiting the journalists' profiles, users were simply met with a message saying that the account had violated the platform's rules.
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