Elon Musk personally ordered Twitter suspension of activist, report says

Elon Musk oversaw a campaign of suppression that targeted his critics upon his assumption of power at Twitter, and directly participated in at least one case, The Independent reported, citing Bloomberg.

The new Twitter CEO personally directed the suspension of a left-leaning activist, Chad Loder, who became known across the platform for his work helping to identify participants in the January 6 attack, according to an internal Twitter message obtained by the news outlet.

It isn’t clear what Mr Musk’s reasoning for the suspension of Loder was; the only text in the message purportedly read: "Suspension: direct request from Elon Musk."

Loder was suspended in November, and has said that the only explanation they were given was ban evasion, though they claim this reason is fabricated.

The campaign to silence Mr Musk’s critics on the platform hardly ended with the suspension of one activist. Numerous other accounts of left-leaning activists and commentators have been suspended without warning, and a number of journalists also remain suspended from the platform for tweeting passing mentions of an account that tracked Mr Musk’s private jet.

Those suspensions came at the direction of Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of Trust and Safety, according to Bloomberg.

A former executive at the company summed it up in a scathing (albeit anonymous) statement to the news outlet: “Since the acquisition, the company’s only actions have been to silence critics of Elon, to expose journalists and others to harm, and to violate basic ethical standards and privacy laws.”