When Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist, regained control of her Twitter account in late 2022, she knew who to credit for her recovery.
“Thank you, Elon!” he wrote to Elon Musk, who had just bought the social network. In another post, Ms. Loomer, who was kicked off the platform in 2018 for writing an anti-Muslim message, praised Mr. Musk in “free speech.”
Ms. Loomer now shares a different message about Mr. Musk. He and a prominent group of right-wing figures – many of whom have enjoyed increased visibility on the platform, renamed X – are increasingly raising alarms about Mr. he silenced the critics on his social media.
Besides Ms. Loomer, high-profile conservatives including Charlie Kirk and Stephen K. Bannon have begun speaking out against Mr. Musk or his policy positions. Batya Ungar-Sargon, the conservative opinion editor of Newsweek, recently called Mr. Musk as a “shill” who investigates opponents. Mike Davis, a lawyer close to Mr. Trump, told Mr. Musk on social media to “stay in your lane.”
Their criticism followed moves by X to suspend or restrict a number of accounts that raised concerns about Mr. Over the weekend, Mr. Musk also angered Conservatives by using his X account to attack Nigel Farage, a friend of Mr. Trump and the head of Britain’s far-right Reform UK party.
Mr. Musk, 53, has quickly burned one of the good wishes he built with Mr. Some people on the right who fought for the entry of Mr. Musk in Republican politics now says they feel cheated and are worried that their agenda may be sidelined in favor of him.
“As a loyal supporter of President Trump, I support him enough to raise the alarm about what is becoming a crime,” Ms. Loomer said in an interview. Ms. Loomer, whose X account was temporarily suspended last month after criticizing Mr. before he creates disaster for his superiors?”
Mr. Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said Mr. Musk “said negative things” about European politicians – the president-elect did not criticize Mr. Farage – but “does a good job.”
The disagreement of Mr. Musk and others on the right stand out as they increasingly embrace the most dangerous groups and values around the world, including in Germany, where he has backed a political party with neo-Nazi ties and plans to host a live broadcast of one. of its leaders on Thursday. Some Trump supporters, such as Alex Jones, founder of the conspiracy-theory site Infowars, remain supportive of Mr.
Still, the split raises questions about whether Trump’s right-wing supporters are united. In a way, Mr. Musk has become a victim of the principles he championed at X by allowing Ms. Loomer and others who were blocked from the platform to return.
“The suppression of speech at Elon Musk’s X is nothing new, and claims of ‘freedom of speech’ have always been valid,” said Evelyn Douek, a Stanford Law School professor who studies the regulation of online speech. “It’s very exciting that these charges come from someone like Loomer, whose account recovery should have signaled the dawn of a new era for Twitter.”
Ms. Loomer, a two-time Republican congresswoman who has described Islam as a “cancer,” broke with Mr. Trump chose to advise on artificial intelligence. He said Mr. Krishnan supports expanding the use of H-1B visas to bring skilled foreign workers to US companies, which he criticizes.
Mr. Musk, who has used the visas to hire workers for his companies, including Tesla, has defended the program as a way to attract top talent from around the world. “I’m going to fight this issue that you can’t understand,” he said of X on Dec. 27.
As the argument escalated, Ms. Loomer and Mr. Bannon put the views of Mr. Musk to foreign workers as an insult to the foundation of Mr. Trump saying “Make America Great Again”. They said Mr. Musk has been seen in his business interests, including Tesla’s relationship with China, and they question whether it is appropriate for someone to hold such a financial role in their group. Mr. Musk spent more than two hundred and fifty million dollars to help Mr. Trump win the election.
Mr. Musk “became addicted to the praise the rallies gave him before Election Day,” Mr. Bannon in a message to the New York Times. “But that quickly turned into a joke when MAGA realized they thought of them as lazy and inferior.”
On Dec. 26, X suspended Ms. Loomer’s account for 12 hours. In messages to Ms. Loomer, X said she violated the terms of service by posting an image from the Federal Election Commission website that included the home addresses of political donors. UX prohibits other personal information from being shared without the individual’s consent, even if it is publicly available.
Without further explanation, X also removed Ms. Loomer’s tag, which X users pay for in order for their accounts to receive increased engagement and, in some cases, to receive a share of ad revenue.
On the same day, Preston Parra, the chairman of the Conservative PAC, a political committee formed to support the policies of Mr.
He and Ms. Loomer were among more than 50 members of the group at the X-linked conservative PAC, many of whom blasted H-1Bs or Mr. Musk. Each of the members’ accounts lost their logo, suggesting it was a “coordinated” move, Mr. Para.
“I voted for Trump — I didn’t vote for Elon,” he said in an interview, adding that many test scores were returned last weekend. Ms Loomer said hers was returned on Monday.
Anastasia Maria Loupis, a Danish doctor with more than 1.3 million followers on X who has called immigrants “terrorists,” said her account also lost its check mark on Dec. 30 after criticizing H-1B visas and Mr. Musk.
On Monday, he wrote that he will take legal action against X. Mr. Musk “serves as the great savior of free speech,” Dr. Loupis said in the post, but bases decisions solely on “his selfish desires for money and power.”
In a message he sent to the Times, Dr. Loupis said “there is no valid reason for what they did to me,” adding that “what has happened here in the past weeks is very bad.”
Over the weekend, Mr. Musk faced fresh criticism over censorship when X blocked links to an investigative article in the Spectator, a conservative British publication, about X’s account that some believed Mr. Musk controlled it privately. The article suggested that the account, @AdrianDittmann, was being used by a man in Fiji.
On Sunday, X suspended the accounts of the article’s author and two researchers who contributed to the piece. UX identified the article as “potentially dangerous,” and messages sent to the reporter and researchers indicated that X had violated his rules on sharing personal information.
UX has faced accusations of opposing freedom of speech and action like previous domain managers, who blocked a New York Post article about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election.
“This is what old Twitter did to the New York Post,” wrote Stephen L. Miller, a right-wing commentator.
Matt McDonald, US managing editor of the Spectator, said there was something strange about Mr.
“Perhaps X is not the paradise of free speech that its ardent supporters believe it to be,” Mr McDonald said in a statement.
Mr. Musk turned to Mr. Farage after the politician backed down against the support of Mr.
“The Reform Party needs a new leader,” wrote Mr. Musk on Sunday. “Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Over the weekend, Mr. Farage told the media that he has a good relationship with Mr. Musk, however, expressed disagreement. The spokesperson of Mr. Farage did not immediately comment.
The comments of Mr. Musk is Mr. Farage upset Mr. Bannon and others see Britain as perhaps the best way to introduce humanitarian policies to that country.
“Nigel Farage is the greatest Englishman alive, who fought for 20 years to restore the sovereignty of his country,” said Mr. Bannon in a message.
Raheem Kassam, who was the adviser of Mr. Farage and the editor of The National Pulse, a right-wing US newspaper, responded briefly to Mr. Musk.
“You’re a scoundrel,” he wrote to X, using profanity.
Source link
