When Laura Loomerfar-right activist regained control of his Twitter account in late 2022, he knew who to credit for his recovery.
“Thank you, Elon!” he he wrote Elon Musk, who recently bought the social network. In another postMs. Loomer, who was fired from the platform in 2018 for posting anti-Muslim messages, praised Mr. Musk's commitment to “free speech.”
Ms. Loomer is now sharing a different message about Mr. Musk. He and a group of prominent right-wing figures who have gained more visibility on the platform, renamed X, are sounding the alarm about Mr. Musk's influence over President-elect Donald J. Trump and what he is up to. silences critics on his social network.
In addition to Ms. Loomer, high-profile conservatives including Charlie Kirk and Stephen K. Bannon have begun speaking out against Mr. Musk or his policy positions. Newsweek's conservative opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon recently called Mr. Musk a “shill” who censors opponents. Mike Davis, a lawyer close to Mr. Trump said Mr. Musk “staying in your lane” on social media.
Their criticism came after X moved to suspend or otherwise restrict dozens of accounts that raised concerns about Mr. Musk and blocked links to articles about him, citing violations of its terms of service. Over the weekend, Mr Musk drew the ire of conservatives when he used his X account to attack Nigel Farage, a Mr Trump ally and leader of Britain's far-right Reform Britain party.
Mr. Musk, 53, has quickly evaporated some of the goodwill he built up with Mr. Trump's supporters after campaigning strongly for the Republican presidential nomination last year. Some right-wing figures who championed Mr. Musk's entry into Republican politics now say they feel cheated and worry their agenda could be swayed in his favor.
“As a staunch supporter of President Trump, I support him enough to sound the alarm about what has become a liability,” Ms. Loomer said in an interview. Ms. Loomer, whose X account was suspended last month after that criticized Mr. Musk's views on immigrationadded, “You don't seem to be allowed to question Elon, and the looming question is: Will Donald Trump intervene without creating a crisis for the administration?”
Mr Musk and Mr X did not respond to requests for comment. Mr Trump said on Tuesday that Mr Musk had “said some negative things” about politicians in Europe – he did not mention President-elect Mr Farage – but that he had “done a good job”.
Mr Musk's rift with some on the far right draws attention as he increasingly embraces extreme parties and figures globally, including in Germany. supported the political party has ties to neo-Nazis and plans to do a live broadcast with one of its leaders on Thursday. Some Trump fans, such as Alex Jones, founder of the conspiracy theory website Infowars, still support Mr. Musk and have said any dissent is aimed at undermining the incoming administration.
Still, the split raises questions about whether the billionaire and right-wing Trump supporters are allies of convenience. In a sense, Mr. Musk became a target for the principles he espoused at X by allowing Ms. Loomer and others who had been banned from the platform to return.
“Elon Musk's suppression of speech at X is nothing new, and claims of 'free speech absolutism' have always been enforceable,” said Evelyn Dowek, a professor at Stanford Law School who studies the regulation of online speech. “It's especially poetic that these accusations come from someone like Loomer, whose account recovery symbolized the beginning of a new era at Twitter.”
Mrs. LoomerThe two-time Republican congressional candidate, who described Islam as a “cancer”, split from Mr Musk after he wrote in X about his unhappiness with Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American venture capitalist who had been Mr Trump's choice, just days before Christmas. provide advice on artificial intelligence. He said Mr. Krishnan has supported and rejected expanding the use of H-1B visas to bring skilled foreign workers to US companies.
Mr. Musk, who has used visas to hire workers at his companies, including Tesla, defended the program as a way to attract top talent from around the world. “I will go to war on this matter, which you cannot understand,” he said X said on December 27.
As the dispute grew, Ms. Loomer and Mr. Bannon framed Mr. Musk's views on foreign workers as an affront to Mr. Trump's “Make America Great Again” base. They said Mr. Musk was tied to business interests, including business interests Tesla's relationship with Chinaand questioned whether it was appropriate for someone to maintain such a financial monopoly over his party. Mr. Musk spent More than $250 million to help Mr. Trump win the election.
Mr. Bannon said in a message to The New York Times that Mr. Musk “became addicted to the adoration that the rallies gave him in the run-up to Election Day.” “But it quickly became derisive when MAGA saw them as lazy and old-fashioned.”
On December 26, X suspended Ms. Loomer's account for 12 hours. In his messages to Ms. Loomer, X said he violated the Federal Election Commission's terms of service by posting an image from the Federal Election Commission's website that contained the home addresses of political donors. X prohibits the sharing of certain personal information without an individual's permission, even if it is publicly available.
Without further explanation, X also removed Ms. Loomer's bookmark, which X users paid for so that their accounts could receive more engagement and, in some cases, a share of ad revenue.
On the same day, Preston Parra, chairman of Conservative PAC, a political action committee formed to support Mr. Trump's policies, revealed that his X account also had a tick of approval.
He and Ms. Loomer were among more than 50 members of a group affiliated with the Conservative PAC at X, many of whom blasted H-1Bs or Mr. Musk. Mr Parra said every member's account had lost the approval mark, suggesting it was a “coordinated” move.
“I voted for Trump — I didn't vote for Elon,” he said, adding that many of the check marks were reinstated last weekend. Ms. Loomer said hers was restored Monday.
Anastasia Maria Loupis, a Danish doctor who has more than 1.3 million followers on X and has called immigrants “terrorists,” said her account was also downvoted on Dec. 30 after criticizing H-1B visas and Mr. Musk.
On Monday, he wrote that he would take legal action against X. Mr. Musk is acting as “the great savior of free speech,” said Dr.
In a message to The Times, Dr Lupis said there was “no good reason for what they did to me”, adding that “what has happened here in recent weeks is appalling”.
Mr. Musk faced fresh criticism for censorship over the weekend when X blocked links to an investigative article by The Spectator, a conservative British publication, about the X account, which some believe Mr. Musk secretly runs. The article believed that the @AdrianDittmann account was run by a man in Fiji.
On Sunday, X suspended the accounts of the article's author and two researchers who contributed to the piece. X had identified the article as “potentially harmful” and messages sent to the journalist and researchers indicated that X had breached the rules on sharing people's personal information.
X has faced accusations of opposing free speech and acting like the site's previous management blocked a New York Post article about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election.
“This is what old Twitter did to the New York Post” he wrote Stephen L. Miller, right-wing commentator.
Matt McDonald, US managing editor of The Spectator, said there was an irony in Mr Musk's actions, particularly as he “turns the world upside down in the name of free speech”.
“X may not be the free speech haven its more ardent fans believe it to be,” Mr. McDonald said in a statement.
Mr Musk has come out on top of Mr Farage After the politician pushed back on Mr Musk's support Tommy Robinsonan anti-immigration campaigner with several felony convictions currently in prison for contempt of court.
“The Reform Party needs a new leader,” Mr Musk said on Sunday. “Farage doesn't have what it takes.”
Over the weekend, Mr Farage told news outlets he had a good relationship with Mr Musk, but hinted at some differences. A spokesman for Mr Farage had no immediate comment.
Mr Musk's comments about Mr Farage have angered Mr Bannon and others who see Britain as the best way to push populist politics in this country.
“Nigel Farage is the greatest living Englishman who has fought for 20 years to reclaim his country's sober sovereignty,” Mr Bannon said in his message.
Raheem Kassam, a former adviser to Mr Farage and editor of The National Pulse, a right-wing US news outlet, had a more succinct response to Mr Musk.
“You're an idiot,” he said he wrote Using the definition in X.