Tech billionaire Elon Musk faced accusations of censorship Friday from fellow conservatives after several prominent right-wing accounts who had criticized Musk’s views on immigration said that they subsequently lost access to premium features on Musk’s social media app, X.
At least 14 conservative accounts said late Thursday or Friday that X had revoked their blue verification badge, cutting them off from a variety of premium features, including the ability to monetize their accounts through subscriptions and advertising revenue-sharing, according to a review conducted by NBC News. Some accounts said the number of those affected was far higher.
The accounts were all still active Friday, but without access to monetization features; some of them said they worried about their ability to keep posting.
Some conservatives said they considered X’s actions to be a betrayal by Musk, who purchased the service then known as Twitter in 2022 in part because he said it had unfairly limited conservative speech. Musk has since called himself a free-expression advocate, even as he calls for jailing some of his critics. Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. But on Thursday night, about an hour before some conservatives started complaining about losing access to X’s premium features, Musk posted what he called “a reminder” on X. He wrote that the site’s algorithm automatically reduces the reach of a user if they’re frequently blocked or muted by other, credible users.
“If far more credible, verified subscriber accounts (not bots) mute/block your account compared to those who like your posts, your reach will decline significantly,” Musk posted.
But rather than satisfying people complaining about censorship, the post elicited even more accusations that Musk was shadowbanning his conservative critics, or reducing engagement on their posts without officially disclosing such actions to affected accounts.
The actions by X came in the middle of a heated online debate on the subject of future immigration policy under President-elect Donald Trump, with anti-immigration MAGA loyalists denouncing the influence of pro-immigration tech executives and investors such as Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Many of the affected accounts said they were affiliated with one media brand in particular, ConservativeOG.
Preston Parra, a 23-year-old influencer and head of ConservativeOG, said he considered the actions by X to be a “political takedown” in retaliation for publicly disagreeing with Musk’s pro-immigration views.
He said he plans to keep fighting Musk, not only to get his premium features restored but also to ensure that Trump pursues restrictionist immigration policies.
“If anyone thinks for one minute the REAL backbone of the right wing and MAGA is gonna stand idly by while these big tech gillionaire Silicon Valley dweebs who didn’t get bullied enough in high school, steal our country, they’re mistaken,” Parra said in a text message. He said he believes Musk to be a “Trojan horse” in the Trump camp.
Trump announced that Musk and Ramaswamy would lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” to much fanfare, shortly after the Nov. 5 election. But in recent days, after venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan was announced as a White House adviser on AI policy, Trump’s tech-world allies — including Musk and Ramaswamy — have come under deeper scrutiny and criticism from the far-right for their previous statements about or involvement with legal immigration.
Musk is an immigrant, having been born and raised in South Africa. He became a U.S. citizen in 2002.
At least three of the affected X accounts have more than 1 million followers each, including the accounts of Ryan Fournier and Laura Loomer.
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Fournier, a co-founder of Students for Trump, said he had had a blue verified badge on the social media app since 2016. He wrote on X that he had “no clue why” he lost it this week. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Premium subscriptions on X include several benefits such as increased prominence in the replies to other accounts’ posts and the ability to apply for sharing ad revenue.
Loomer, a far-right activist and close Trump ally, said that X had demonetized her — cutting off her ability to collect subscription fees and other revenue on the site — and had revoked her blue verification checkmark about two days after she began criticizing Musk over tech industry visas.
On Tuesday, Loomer wrote on X that tech billionaires “are like termites who have descended upon Palm Beach,” where Trump is working on the presidential transition from his Mar-a-Lago resort. And she kept up her criticism as the week went on.
Musk mentioned her in a post Thursday, writing: “Loomer is trolling for attention. Ignore.”
And hours later, Loomer says her account lost access to premium features.
“Looks like Elon Musk is going to be silencing me for supporting original Trump immigration policies,” she posted on X, calling the changes to her account “retaliation.” She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Andrew Torba, the CEO of the far-right social media app Gab, has in the past praised Musk, but on Friday he criticized the billionaire for silencing others and invited disaffected X users to come to his platform instead. Torba is openly antisemitic and on Friday also posted that people have “two choices: be racist or be replaced.”
It’s not the first time that X and Musk have been accused of silencing users, despite Musk’s vowed commitments to free speech. In September, X said it temporarily suspended a journalist for posting private personal information, after he shared a document that appeared to have been stolen from Trump’s campaign. In 2022, the platform suspended the accounts of several other journalists who wrote about Musk.
In July, X suspended the account “White Dudes for Harris,” which supported Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump, and in August it temporarily shut down “Progressives for Harris.”
