Elon Musk shadowbans bloggers who criticize him on X — The New York Times

The reach of prominent right-wing users of X has dropped significantly after they criticized Elon Musk on his own social network. The New York Times writes that this may be the result of a shadow ban.

A shadow ban is a type of account sanction when the algorithm reduces the reach of posts, without the account owner receiving any notification about it.

One such user is Anastasia Maria Lupis, a well-known anti-vaccination activist with over a million followers. Until December 2024, she was getting hundreds of thousands of views per day, but after criticizing Elon Musk’s immigration program, her reach dropped sharply. After creating a new account, she immediately received more views than her old one.

A similar situation occurred with Laura Loomer, a right-wing blogger and conspiracy theorist who is also known for her Ukrainophobic statements. After a dispute with Musk, her posts lost reach and her X Premium subscription was canceled. However, after Musk began interacting with her content again, her reach recovered.

A lawyer for FIRE said such actions contradict Musk's claims about free speech. He explained that if administrators manually influence the visibility of accounts, it violates the promised principle of openness and transparency that the company aimed for users.

A shadow ban is difficult to prove, but it's not the first time Elon Musk has been accused of selectively silencing criticism. He has previously stripped right-wing bloggers of their followers, restricted links to the Substack platform, and removed mentions of competitors.