X's fresh temporary ban of several prominent journalists raises alarm
X banned prominent journalists from the Texas Observer and the Intercept, along with the podcast account TrueAnon and other accounts.
At least eight prominent X accounts belonging to journalists, a podcast host and leftist posters were suspended Tuesday in what platform head Elon Musk suggested was an accident.
The accounts, which were restored within hours, all have over 75,000 followers and are known to be left-leaning. The temporary bans drove immediate claims of censorship from some X users online, who pointed to past instances in which the platform suspended similar types of users.
In a reply post on X, Musk seemed to suggest the bans were an accidental overstep of a routine sweep for spam and scam accounts. “We do sweeps for spam/scam accounts and sometimes real accounts get caught up in them,” he wrote.
A representative for X did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk, who has increasingly embraced conservatives and their messaging, has routinely championed X as a platform for free speech.
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