{"id":6981,"date":"2024-08-08T14:11:43","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T06:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=6981"},"modified":"2024-08-08T14:11:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T06:11:45","slug":"elon-musks-x-accused-of-bias-after-pro-harris-accounts-labeled-as-spam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=6981","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s X accused of bias after pro-Harris accounts labeled as \u2018spam\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Elon Musk\u2019s X accused of bias after pro-Harris accounts labeled as \u2018spam\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Prominent X accounts advocating for Vice President Kamala Harris have been labeled as spam or restricted in recent weeks, triggering alarm among some Democrats that Elon Musk\u2019s social media platform is tilted in favor of his chosen candidate, former president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a handful of pro-Harris accounts, including one called \u201cWhite Dudes for Harris,\u201d appear to have been affected. But the recurring issues are raising questions about whether Musk\u2019s platform is intentionally censoring the pages, or if the deep staff cuts he made after buying the company in 2022 have left the platform ill-equipped for the surge in political speech ahead of the Nov. 5 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s recent posts on X \u2014 which have actively courted support for Trump and amplified a manipulated video of Harris \u2014 highlight the potential risks of having the owner of a major platform openly champion a presidential candidate. This dynamic is unprecedented, as other social media CEOs and founders have largely stayed out of the political fray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s curious,\u201d Ross Morales Rocketto, an organizer of White Dudes for Harris, a pro-Harris group whose account was affected twice in the course of a week. \u201cClearly we\u2019re political, so it just continues to feel like another iteration of Musk Twitter impacting people\u2019s political speech when it not does not align with him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Dudes for Harris drew more than 200,000 people to an online fundraiser last week that raised more than $4 million. Shortly after the event, the group had its X account suspended<\/a>. It was reinstated several hours later. On Tuesday, the group was told by X that its reach on the platform could be restricted because the group\u2019s page \u201cmay contain spam or be engaging in other types of platform manipulation,\u201d according <\/a>to a screenshot shared by organizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another account, \u201cProgressives for Harris,\u201d<\/a> was temporarily suspended and labeled as spam on Friday shortly after the group announced that prominent politicians such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would headline an upcoming online rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And at least one official campaign account has also apparently been restricted on X. On the day Biden withdrew from the race last month and endorsed Harris, some users reported they were unable to follow her official campaign account, @KamalaHQ<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk and X did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about four episodes out of a lot of Harris content on X,\u201d said Daniel Kreiss, a principal researcher at the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina. \u201cBut without transparency into why enforcement decisions are being made, given the very strong political activism of the owner, people are going to raise questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Musk acquired the platform then known as Twitter in October 2022, he made sweeping layoffs<\/a> and other dramatic changes to its staffing and policies. The entrepreneur fired much of Twitter\u2019s trust and safety team, loosened the site\u2019s rules on hate speech, reinstated a number of previously suspended accounts and lifted a ban on campaign ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander B. Howard, an open government advocate, said X\u2019s diminished staff might make technical glitches or moderation mistakes more likely, or cause the platform to fix them more slowly. Such issues happened even before the billionaire took over, he said, but Musk\u2019s political advocacy has erased any trust in the platform\u2019s neutrality and put a spotlight on which accounts get restricted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeutrality has left the building,\u201d Howard said. \u201cWe\u2019re now in a really dangerous moment headed to a pivotal presidential election, and someone who has direct control, at a root level, to this platform is fomenting division.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and other social media CEOs and founders have at times engaged with political causes with donations or the occasional statement. With the exception of Trump\u2019s social media site Truth Social, none have been as outspoken or partisan as Musk, who has increasingly courted a right-wing audience on his platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last spring, for example, Musk hosted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on X to announce his run for the White House, in an event that was marred by major technical issues<\/a>. This summer, Musk became even more overt<\/a> in his support for the Republican ticket when he endorsed Trump\u2019s presidential campaign after the attempted assassination on the former president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Musk used his site to taunt British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over far-right violence in the United Kingdom, suggesting the perpetrators were unfairly targeted by police. The Financial Times reported that the British government had found X less responsive<\/a> than other social platforms to alerts flagging posts believed to be inciting further violence or spreading disinformation about the clashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would do a \u201cmajor interview\u201d with Musk on Monday, without providing further details. Musk appeared to confirm in a post on X that the interview would be streamed on his platform. A representative for the Harris campaign declined to comment about whether the candidate was offered a similar opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Musk\u2019s takeover, Twitter was often accused by Republicans of censoring conservative viewpoints with the aim of helping Democratic candidates. Its new owner\u2019s personal endorsement of Trump \u2014 coupled with the recent restrictions experienced by pro-Harris accounts \u2014 has flipped that pattern on its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) called on<\/a> House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to investigate reports that some users were temporarily blocked from following a Harris campaign account on July 21. In a media statement about the letter to NBC News<\/a>, Nadler wrote that unlike \u201cthe countless conspiracy theories of political censorship that Republicans have chased down over the last year,\u201d the episode \u201cappears to be a real example of online censorship.\u201d Spokespeople for Jordan did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after that letter, other pro-Harris accounts began to report a string of actions against them by X. It started with the White Dudes for Harris account, which was first suspended last week right after its massive fundraiser because of \u201ca user report\u201d for \u201cviolating our rules against evading suspension,\u201d according to screenshot of the log-in screen shared with The Washington Post. The account was reinstated several hours later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, an account for Progressives for Harris, @Progs4Harris, was suspended shortly after it posted to announce that Sanders would headline its own online rally Monday, along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). The account \u2014 which received a significant jump in followers after it posted about the suspension \u2014 was reinstated after about two hours, according to an email the group received from X and shared with The Post, which said the suspension was accidental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have systems that find and remove multiple automated spam accounts in bulk, and yours was flagged as spam by mistake,\u201d the email said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, White Dudes for Harris received another notification from X saying the reach of its account may be limited and its content may also be temporarily restricted because it may contain spam. Even if the string of incidents can be attributed to mistakes by X, Rocketto, the organizer, said it makes him wonder about what will happen as the political speech ramps up in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow are they going to handle this, especially as we get closer and more misinformation spreads?\u201d Rocketto said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk has at times jumped in to help accounts experiencing technical problems on X. On Saturday, for example, the National Weather Service posted that it could no longer post automated tweets and, as a result, it could no longer \u201cpost all watches\/warnings\/advisories as they are issued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk responded: \u201cThis should not be happening. Will investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizers of the pro-Harris accounts say they have not received any direct assistance from X staff or its CEO, only automated messages informing them their accounts have been restricted or reinstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cristiano Lima-Strong contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Prominent X accounts advocating for Vice President Kamala Harris have been labeled as spam or restricted in recent weeks, triggering alarm among some Democrats that Elon Musk\u2019s social media platform is tilted in favor of his chosen candidate, former president Donald Trump. 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