According to his own statement, Elon Musk fights for free speech on Twitter, even if it hurts many. According to a report by Bloomberg and Insider, however, he is said to have ordered the account of a left-wing activist to be blocked. This is said to have been preceded by an organized action.
According to the Insider portal, a leaked internal Twitter message is said to show that Elon Musk directly instructed employees to block the account of a left-wing activist on the social media platform. According to Bloomberg, it viewed a screenshot of the message in question affecting Chad Loder’s user account, which reads: “Suspension: Direct instruction from Elon Musk.”
In his profile on Twitter competitor Mastodon, Loder describes himself as a community activist, cybersecurity expert and citizen journalist. His investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riots reportedly led to the arrest of a masked member of the far-right Proud Boys organization who had assaulted police officers, The Intercept reported.
While Musk has historically described himself as “somewhere in the middle” politically, he encouraged his supporters to vote Republican the day before the US midterms in November. In addition, Musk was repeatedly noticed by posting and sharing questionable content. In a since-deleted tweet in October, he shared a conspiracy theory surrounding the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker of Parliament Nancy Pelosi. A right-wing website had made unsubstantiated claims that the attacker was a male prostitute and had a date with Paul Pelosi. During the meeting, an argument broke out and the man hit Pelosi. Police disagreed, saying it was clearly a burglary.
Musk has also repeatedly sneered at numerous political demands from left-wing activists and politicians. He also had numerous nationalist Twitter accounts reactivated. As recently as Tuesday, Twitter restored prominent white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ account, only to have it suspended again within 24 hours. Fuentes had written, for example, that Adolf Hitler was “cool”. The accounts of numerous journalists, on the other hand, were temporarily blocked.
Musk is a free speech advocate who believes that anyone can say almost anything. The only red line should be that people are not harmed as a result. JM Berger, an expert on social media extremism, reportedly told Insider: “I think he’s intentionally empowering right-wing extremists.”
Loder’s account, on the other hand, is said to have been one of several prominent left-leaning accounts banned from Twitter in November 2022. Loder told Insider’s Sawdah Bhaimiya that he suspected the suspension was the result of an “organized mass reporting campaign” in which a right-wing group published a Substack blog with instructions on how to report violations of the Twitter Rules by specific accounts. Loder’s profile is said to have been at the top of the list. Twitter is said not to have responded to a request from insiders.
