X is banning and unbanning journalists and podcasters in the latest massacre of free speech on Twitter [Updated] -Gizmodo

Update, 12:35: X has restored the suspended accounts without explanation. The Hamas-affiliated account remains blocked.

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Update, 1:12 Shortly after publishing this article, Musk responded to a question from far-right influencer Jackson Hinkle on the topic. The accounts went back up after Musk promised to “investigate.” Musk later blamed X's spam algorithms for the bans.

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, deleted an unknown number of prominent accounts with little or no explanation in the last 24 hours, then restored the accounts minutes after this article was published. The list contains popular accounts of journalists, authors and podcasters. Among them are the Intercept's Ken Klippenstein, author and podcaster Rob Rousseau, Texas Observer correspondent Steven Monacelli, the account of TrueAnon, a left-wing politics and news podcast, and a number of others. What the reports have in common is the recent criticism of the Israeli government.

Elon Musk has faced backlash in recent months after supporting the blatantly racist conspiracy theory that Jews promote “anti-white hatred.” The CEO then launched a campaign to restore his image by celebrating the Israeli military, denouncing anti-Semitism and traveling to Israel for an impromptu meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“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 recent months,” Monacelli told Gizmodo. “Yes, I have written posts criticizing Israel's attacks on civilians and journalists and shared news about pro-Palestinian protests, but I have also recently written posts and shared news exposing anti-Semitism was disguised as criticism of Israel.”

Less than half an hour after this article was published, far-right influencer Jackson Hinkle tweeted Musk asking him why accounts critical of Israel were being blocked. Musk, who has a history of answering customer service questions from prominent conservative users, responded.

“I will investigate. “Of course it's okay to be critical of anything, but it's not okay to call for extreme violence because that's illegal,” Musk said wrote. “For the record, I personally do not share your views. Nonetheless, the point of freedom of expression is to give those whose views you disagree with the opportunity to express those views.” Shortly thereafter, the accounts were restored.

Fiery journalist Glenn Greenwald, a darling of the neo-libertarian Twitter movement, thanked Musk for investigating the problem. Musk blamed the bans on X's anti-spam algorithms.

“We screen spam/scam accounts and sometimes real accounts get caught in them,” Musk said tweeted. In another tweetThe billionaire wrote: “There are around 600 million active accounts on this platform. Mistakes of this magnitude are bound to happen, but we try to fix them quickly.”

Monacelli shared an email from X apologizing for the problem. “We are writing to let you know that we have unbanned your account,” X’s support team wrote. “We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to see you back on X soon.”

Screenshot: Gizmodo/X

Like the other reports, the TrueAnon podcast has criticized the Israeli government in the past and recently completed a two-part series examining the country's nuclear weapons program. “Why did Elon suspend my podcast account and what about free speech?” Liz Franczak, co-host of TrueAnon, wrote on their personal X account. “Why is the woke mob going after hardworking American small businesses?”

We have contacted other affected users and will update this article as soon as we hear anything. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“As a journalist, I have consistently avoided layoffs throughout my career, and Elon is not even in the top 10 threats to my survival,” says Klippenstein wrote on

Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has previously said that no one should be banned from X unless they break the law. “Given that Twitter serves as a de facto public square, failure to uphold the principles of free expression fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted in 2022, ahead of purchasing the platform.

Screenshot: Gizmodo/X

In reality, Musk has a long history of silencing his critics and censoring views that make him uncomfortable. The world's richest man has not commented on most of the account suspensions, but responded to a tweet asking about @qassam2024, an account linked to the Hamas military.

“This was a difficult decision,” Musk said wrote to X. “While many heads of government, including in the USA, call for people to be killed, we have a 'UN exception'; If a government is recognized by the United Nations, we will not block their accounts. Hamas is not recognized as a government by the United Nations and is therefore suspended.”

Unlike the other accounts suspended on the same day, the Hamas account remains suspended. Musk tweeted that the “UN exemption” still applies.

However, other blocked accounts have never called for killing people in the past, but they have all criticized the Israeli government. Klippenstein, for example, recently published an article in his Substack newsletter noting that Musk discussed AI in his meeting with Netanyahu in November, when the Israeli government was using AI to bomb Gaza. Klippenstein has also posted criticism of the Israeli government and military on X.

It's not the first time Musk has kicked journalists off the platform and welcomed them back after public criticism. In 2022, Musk rewrote Twitter's rules to ban @ElonJet, an account that tracked his private jet, and then suspended the accounts of a number of journalists who wrote about @ElonJet, including some who were never actually on X Talking about it sparked widespread condemnation, and shortly thereafter the accounts were reinstated, although Musk continued to claim they had violated X's rules.

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