X / Twitter purges then reinstates journalists, podcasters, and leftist accounts critical of Elon Musk
Elon Musk's X / Twitter once again purged journalists — among others — who were critical of the billionaire's politics. But as quickly as they went, they seemingly soon came back.
This time X barred a handful of journalists, podcasters, and other users. Among the purged: the Intercept's Ken Klippenstein, the Texas Observer's Steven Monacelli, podcaster Rob Rousseau, and the account for the leftwing podcast TrueAnon. But just as some of the previous, seemingly arbitrary bans of other journalists didn't last, this incident was quickly resolved on Tuesday.
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Klippenstein, Monacelli, TrueAnon, and Rousseau — perhaps the most prominent accounts involved — began posting again hours after getting booted.
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"I lived bitch," posted Klippenstein, in reference to a classic meme.
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"It's actually illegal to ban me," Monacelli posted jokingly.
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The short-lived bans were seemingly unexplained.
"I haven't received any communications from Twitter/X about why I have been suspended," Monacelli told Gizmodo before the reinstatement. "I can't think of anything I've posted lately that would be worthy of suspension. Although I have written multiple critical reports about Twitter/X and Elon Musk in recent months."
Gizmodo noted that while it was unclear how these accounts were chosen, they had all seemingly been critical of the Israeli government. Musk has made it a point to be visibly supportive of Israel not long after publicly endorsing a prominent anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
It's unclear why the purge happened and if the reinstatements are permanent. It's also not clear why the accounts were suddenly brought back — though the purge had gone quite viral. It's just another unpredictable and inexplicable day on Elon Musk's X.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
