A number of prominent left-leaning X users who had been highly critical of billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman as well as Israel's military action in Gaza were suddenly and inexplicably banned from the social media platform on Tuesday.
Those suspended included Intercept national security reporter Ken Klippenstein and Texas Observer reporter Steven Monacelli. Other high-follower accounts launched included the TrueAnon podcast, Twitch streamer Rob Rousseau, and users @RyanShead, @zei_squirrel, and @theliamnissan.
Although no explanation or reason was initially given for the suspensions, speculation immediately arose that these users had expressed overt criticism of Musk and Ackman, who led a right-wing push to oust Harvard President Claudine Gay and have since drawn media attention for their coverage harassed him. His wife's plagiarism was behind the bans.
Prior to publishing this article, most accounts were reactivated without further explanation. Musk and Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.
“[I] lived bitch,” Klippenstein tweeted after his account was restored.
For example, shortly after the bans were announced, the hashtag #FreeLiamNissan was added started trending on XUsers pointed out that the satirical account @theliamnissan recently nicknamed Musk “Apartheid Clyde” for promoting a version of the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
In a statement to The Daily Dot's Mikael Thalen, Monacelli said he had received no explanation as to why his account was suddenly deleted Tuesday morning, but he suspected it had something to do with his critical reporting on Musk.
“I have received no communication from Twitter/X as to why I was suspended,” Monacelli wrote. “I can't think of anything I've posted recently that would be worthy of a ban. Although I have written several critical reports about Twitter/X and Elon Musk in the last few months.”
The Texas Observer also weighed in, tweeting directly to Musk and the platform's support account to ask why their reporter had been suspended.
Klippenstein and The Intercept did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, several of Klippenstein's colleagues criticized Musk for the suspension and the owner of the
“It's so pathetically ironic that @elonmusk is deleting the few remaining left-wing accounts because we truly believe in an open exchange of ideas, even with people we vehemently disagree with,” tweeted Ryan Grim, The's DC bureau chief Intercept. “You know who doesn’t really believe in that? @elonmusk.”
Intercept writer Murtaza Hussain added: “This is crazy because this is a person who is actually doing real reporting with secret documents and sources.”
While the exact reason for Klippenstein's suspension is unknown, the reporter wrote a Substack post last month detailing how Musk spoke to the Israeli military about using artificial intelligence in its bombing campaign on Gaza.
Attorney Beth Bourdon, who regularly assists Klippenstein with Freedom of Information Act requests, speculated that Musk has been trying to remove Klippenstein from the platform for about a year because of the Intercept journalist's reporting on him.
“[E]“Lon Musk started his campaign against Ken a year ago,” Bourdon tweeted. “[O]On January 10, 2023, Ken published a story about Tesla using video I obtained through a public records request.”
After sharing a link to Klippenstein's story about Tesla's “problematic Autopilot features” last year, Bourdon added: “[I] Whatever is going on with these suspensions, I feel like if there was a way for Elon to suspend Ken now since he wasn't able to do it last January, he would do it.”
After a few hours, Klippenstein's account was back. He linked to his Substack post about Musk and Israel and explained that there was a “backstory to it” before asking his followers to subscribe to his newsletter.
Monacelli's account was also reactivated on Tuesday afternoon. “It would be so funny if I hit 100,000 followers after being suspended and then reinstated by a man known for making stupid decisions while intoxicated,” he mocked the about-face, referencing recent reports about Musk illegal drug use.
Although Musk and Twitter have not commented on the bans, it appears the edgelord billionaire lifted the bans after far-right conspiracy theorist Jackson Hinkle questioned why X was blocking accounts that were critical of Israel. (Hinkle himself has exploited left-wing pro-Palestinian sentiment to spread anti-Semitic conspiracies.)
“I will investigate. Of course it's okay to be critical of anything, but it's not okay to call for extreme violence as that's illegal,” Musk tweeted to Hinkle. “(Apart from the 'UN exemption') , where officials from UN-recognized countries can say what they say at the UN.) For the record, I personally don't share your views. Nonetheless, the point of freedom of speech is to give those whose views you don't share the opportunity to speak to express these views.”
The account @zei_squirrel, which has long criticized US foreign policy in Israel, was also reactivated shortly before this article was published. Before returning to X, the author in the Substack newsletter suggested that Ackman was involved in the suspension.
“I didn't even have the option to delete a post that allegedly violated Twitter's rules. No, that asshole Elon Musk just blocked me, probably at the behest of his buddy Bill Ackman, who I've been embarrassing for the last few days,” wrote @zei_squirrel. “For no reason. Not even trying to justify it. No, he just suspended me because his billionaire buddy didn't like my posts about him.”
The author continued: “This is the only reason I can think of why I would be suspended now, as the content of my posts has not changed in any way compared to the last few months or years.” No, it's because I “I followed Bill Ackman.”
This isn't the first time Musk has banned reporters from his platform, despite claiming to believe in completely unrestricted free speech. Just weeks after he first bought Twitter in late 2022, he suspended several high-profile journalists who had reported critically on his acquisition, including reporters from CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
After initially justifying the bans by claiming the journalists had doxxed him, he eventually lifted the bans after a Twitter poll showed that the majority of the site's users disagreed with his decision.