When far-right activist Laura Loomer took back control of her Twitter account in late 2022, she knew who to praise for her return.
“Thank you, Elon!” she wrote to Elon Musk, who recently acquired the social network. Loomer, who was banned from the platform in 2018 for writing anti-Muslim messages, praised Musk's commitment to “free speech” in another post.
Loomer is now sharing another message about Musk. He and a prominent right-wing group, many of which have gained prominence on the platform and renamed themselves X, have been characterized by Mr. Musk's influence over President-elect Donald J. Trump and his desire for Mr. I'm becoming more and more cautious about things. Silence critics on his social networks.
Separately from Mr. Loomer, prominent conservatives such as Charlie Kirk and Stephen K. Bannon have begun to speak out against Mr. Musk and his policy positions. Newsweek's conservative opinion editor Batia Unger Sargon recently called Musk a “scumbag” who censors his opponents. Mike Davis, a lawyer close to Trump, told Musk on social media to “stay in your lane.”
Their criticisms followed a move by Company X to suspend or restrict dozens of accounts that raised concerns about Musk and blocked them from linking to articles about him, citing violations of its terms of service. Musk drew further ire from conservatives over the weekend when he used his X account to attack Nigel Farage, an ally of Trump and leader of Britain's far-right Reform UK party.
Mr. Musk, 53, quickly evaporated some of the goodwill he had built with Mr. Trump's supporters after campaigning extensively for the Republican presidential candidate last year. Some right-wing figures who had championed Mr. Musk's foray into Republican politics now feel duped and want their policies to be prioritized rather than sidelined. He says he is worried about this.
“As a staunch supporter of President Trump, I fully support him and am sounding the alarm on what is becoming a liability,” Loomer said in an interview. Loomer, whose X account was suspended last month after criticizing Musk's views on immigration, added: Before jeopardizing his administration? ”
Mr. Musk and Mr. X did not respond to requests for comment. On Tuesday, Trump said Musk had “said some negative things” about European politicians, but the president-elect did not mention Farage by name, but said he was “doing a good job.”
Mr. Musk's falling out with some on the far-right stands out as he increasingly embraces more extreme parties and figures around the world, including in Germany. In Germany, Musk supports a political party with neo-Nazi ties and plans to host a livestream with one party. Its leaders spoke on Thursday. Some Trump fans, such as Alex Jones, founder of the conspiracy theory website Infowars, remain supportive of Musk, arguing that opposition is aimed at undermining the incoming administration.
Still, the split raises questions about whether billionaires and right-wing Trump supporters are allies of convenience. In a sense, Mr. Musk has become a target for the principles he has championed at X by allowing Mr. Loomer and others who have been banned from the platform back into the fold.
“Elon Musk's suppression of speech against speak “It's especially poetic that these accusations come from someone like Loomer, whose reinstatement probably symbolized the beginning of a new era on Twitter.”
Loomer, a two-time Republican candidate for Congress who has described Islam as a “cancer,” posted on X a few days before Christmas about his grievances with Indian venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan, who had cut ties with Musk. He later parted ways with Musk. Trump has chosen him as an advisor on artificial intelligence. She said Mr. Krishnan supports expanding the use of H-1B visas to bring skilled foreign workers to U.S. businesses, which she criticized.
Musk, who has used the visa to hire workers for companies such as Tesla, defended the program as a way to attract top talent from around the world. “I'm going to fight as hard as I can on this issue that you'll never understand,” he said on the TV show “X” on December 27.
As the discussion escalated, Loomer and Bannon branded Musk's views on foreign workers as an insult to Trump's “Make America Great Again” base. They say Mr. Musk cares about his own business interests, including Tesla's relationship with China, and questions whether it is appropriate for someone to have so much financial influence over the party. He said there was. Mr. Musk spent more than $250 million to help Mr. Trump win the election.
Bannon said in a message to The New York Times that Musk “fell in love with the worship given to him at rallies ahead of Election Day.” “But that quickly turned to ridicule when MAGAs saw them as lazy and mediocre.”
On December 26th, X suspended Rumer's account for 12 hours. In a message to Loomer, Mr. X prohibits the sharing of some personal information without the person's permission, even if it is publicly available.
Without further explanation, X also removed Rumer's check mark. This check mark allows X users to pay for increased engagement on their accounts and potentially receive a portion of the advertising revenue.
On the same day, Preston Parra, chairman of the Conservative Party PAC, a political action committee formed to support Mr. Trump's policies, also noticed that the checkmark on his X account had disappeared.
He and Mr. Loomer are among more than 50 members of a group on X associated with the Conservative PAC, many of whom have blasted H-1B and Mr. Musk. Parra said the checkmarks on each member's account had disappeared, suggesting it was a “coordinated” move.
“I voted for Trump. I didn't vote for Elon,” he said in an interview, adding that many of the checkmarks were restored over the weekend. Loomer said hers was repaired Monday.
Danish doctor Anastasia Maria Lupis, who has more than 1.3 million followers on He said he lost the check mark.
On Monday, she wrote that she intended to take legal action against X. Mr. Musk “acts like the great savior of free speech” but bases his decisions “only on his selfish ambitions for money and power,” Dr. Lupis said in the post. ”
In a message to the Times, Dr. Lupis said there was “no justifiable reason” for what they did to me, adding: “What has been happening here in recent weeks is terrible.”
Last weekend, Mr. Musk was censored after X blocked a link to an investigative article by British conservative publication The Spectator about the X account, which some believed was secretly controlled by Mr. Musk. faced new criticism. The article suggests that the account @AdrianDittmann is run by a man based in Fiji.
On Sunday, X suspended the accounts of the author of the article and two researchers who contributed to it. X had identified the article as “potentially harmful” and messages sent to journalists and researchers indicated that X had broken rules about sharing people's personal information. It had been.
X is accused of opposing free speech and acting in the same way as the site's former management, which blocked a New York Post article about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election.
“This is what old Twitter did to the New York Post,” wrote right-wing commentator Stephen L. Miller.
Matt MacDonald, the U.S. editor of The Spectator, said there was irony in Musk's actions, especially considering he was “turning the world upside down in the name of free speech.”
“Maybe X is not the free speech haven that its more ardent fans believe it to be,” McDonald said in a statement.
Mr Musk turned against Mr Farage after the politician objected to his support for Tommy Robinson, a multi-convicted anti-immigration activist currently serving a sentence for contempt of court.
“The Reform Party needs new leadership,” Musk wrote on Sunday. “Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Over the weekend, Mr Farage told the press that he had a good relationship with Mr Musk, but hinted that there had been disagreements. A spokesperson for Mr Farage was not immediately available for comment.
Mr Musk's comments about Mr Farage infuriated Mr Bannon and others who see the British as perhaps the best way to introduce populist policies in the country.
“Nigel Farage is the greatest living British man who has fought for 20 years to restore the solemn sovereignty of his country,” Bannon said in his message.
Raheem Kassam, a former adviser to Mr Farage and editor of the US right-wing news organization National Pulse, had a more succinct response to Mr Musk.
“You are an idiot,” he wrote to X, using an expletive.
