https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-accused-of-censoring-right-wing-x-accounts-who-disagree-with-him-on-immigration-13280740Elon Musk is facing censorship accusations after prominent right-wing accounts claimed they lost access to premium features on X when they criticised his views on immigration.
On Friday night, Musk called some anti-immigration Republicans "contemptible fools", adding they were "hateful, unrepentant racists" who would "absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed".
At least 14 conservative accounts who criticised Musk's pro-legal immigration views said X revoked their blue tick, a verification badge given to premium account holders, according to Sky News' US partner NBC News.
That removed their ability to monetise their accounts and led to some saying they were worried about their ability to keep posting on the platform.
When Musk bought the site in 2022, he said he had a policy of "freedom of speech" but not "freedom of reach", meaning negative posts wouldn't be banned but would be "max deboosted", making them hard to find.
He said this policy would apply to individual tweets and not entire accounts.
Musk has since called himself a free-expression advocate, even as he called for jailing some of his critics.
X and Musk did not respond to NBC News' requests for comment on Friday
However 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 decline significantly".
This led some to say he was "shadowbanning" people who disagreed with him.
Shadowbanning is when the reach of an account is significantly restricted without an official explanation or acknowledgement of the restriction.
