Elon Musk accused of censoring right-wing X accounts that disagree with him on immigration | News about science, climate and technology

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Elon Musk is facing censorship charges after prominent right-wing accounts claimed they lost access to premium features on X when they criticized his views on immigration.

Friday night, Musk called some anti-immigration Republicans “despicable fools” and added that they were “hateful, unrepentant racists” who “would absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they were not removed”.

At least 14 conservative accounts that criticized Musk’s pro-legal immigration views said X revoked their blue ticks, a verification mark given to premium account holders, according to Sky News’ US partner NBC News.

That removed their ability to monetize their accounts and led some to say they were concerned about their ability to continue posting on the platform.

When Musk bought the site in 2022, he said he had a policy of “freedom of speech” but not “freedom to reach,” meaning that negative posts would not be banned but would be “max deboosted,” which making them hard to find.

He said this policy would apply to individual tweets and not entire accounts.

Musk has since called himself an advocate for free speech, even as he called for jailing some of his critics.

X and Musk did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment Friday

But on Thursday, the tech billionaire posted what he called a “reminder” on X: “If far more credible, verified subscriber accounts (not bots) mute/block your account compared to those who like your posts, your reach will drop significantly “.

This led some to say that he “shadow-banned” people who disagreed with him.

Shadowbanning is when the reach of an account is significantly limited without an official explanation or acknowledgment of the limitation.

Heated immigration debate

The accusations of censorship come amid a heated debate about immigration in the United States.

That was partly triggered when Donald Trump named Indian-born entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as his artificial intelligence adviser, a move backed by tech billionaire-turned-government official Musk.

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Trump’s anti-immigration supporters attacked the appointment, with prominent MAGA voice Laura Loomer calling it “deeply disturbing.”

She now claims that around “75% of the replies” on her account are being flagged as likely spam by Musk’s platform after an online spat with the billionaire.

Tesla founder Musk – who was born in South Africa and became a US citizen in 2002 – has long voiced his support for skilled immigration.

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Last year, he told his followers, “We should greatly increase legal immigration of anyone who is hardworking, honest, and loves America.

“Any such person is an asset to the country.

“But massive illegal immigration of people we know nothing about is insane.”

He has reiterated this view several times since, writing on Christmas Day: “The number of people who are super skilled engineers AND super motivated in the US is way too low.

“Think of this like a professional sports team: If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they are.”