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Elon Musk Twitter
Molly Butler / Media Matters

Elon Musk’s Twitter continues to favor right-wing content, reinstating dozens of accounts with millions of combined followers

Written by Ruby Seavey

Research contributions from Kayla Gogarty & Audrey McCabe

Published 12/21/22 5:23 PM EST

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New Twitter CEO Elon Musk is seemingly continuing to favor right-wing content during his effort to reinstate previously suspended accounts as part of his misguided vision of transforming Twitter into the “digital town square.”

This week, Media Matters analyzed independent software developer Travis Brown’s data sets that were released between December 14-20 and include recently reinstated Twitter accounts. After narrowing down the data to the 50 most followed accounts, we found that 60% of these accounts pushed right-wing content to their over 6 million combined followers.  

Since taking control of the platform, Musk has reinstated thousands of accounts, many of which have pushed misinformation, right-wing talking points, and white nationalist ideology.

Over the last week, Musk — a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” — baselessly suspended multiple journalists for supposedly violating Twitter’s new “doxxing” policy or a briefly updated policy against the promotion of other social media platforms. (The accounts have all been reinstated and the latter policy was quickly revoked.) The day after suspending many of these journalists, Musk reinstated a dozen more right-wing accounts, including a white nationalist who attended the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. 

Media Matters found that out of the 50 reinstated accounts from last week with the most followers, 30 accounts — or 60% — were right-wing. Only 2 accounts — or 4% — were left-wing. These newly reinstated accounts include anti-Muslim extremists, far-right activists, election deniers, and others who have pushed COVID-19 misinformation. 

Here are some of the right-wing accounts reinstated under Musk’s leadership last week:

  • James O’Keefe is the founder of Project Veritas who was banned from Twitter in April 2021. Since being reinstated on December 16, O’Keefe proclaimed that he is back “like I never left,” and has returned to promoting Project Veritas' manufactured and deceptively edited content to push right-wing narratives. 
image of tweet
  • Mike Lindell is the disgraced CEO of MyPillow and has heavily pushed the narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and used his Twitter comeback to continue to cast doubt on the U.S. election system. Lindell was banned in January 2021 for violating the platform’s misinformation policies. 
Mike Lindell is back on Twitter and thanks Elon Musk and writes that all electronic voting machines should be melted and turned into prison bars
  • The Gateway Pundit is a right-wing website run by Jim Hoft that was banned from Twitter in February 2021, seemingly for pushing misinformation about the 2020 election. Hoft thanked Musk for his reinstatement and has since amplified right-wing accounts undermining COVID-19 vaccines and promoted content that contains election misinformation. 
Jim Hoft returns to Twitter
  • Pamela Geller is “one of the most flamboyant anti-Muslim activists in the United States,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and she was banned in February 2021 for pushing election misinformation.
Pamela Geller welcome back tweet
  • Mindy Robinson is a QAnon supporter and former congressional candidate. Her first tweet following her reinstatement was a picture of her holding a gun, and she has since begun hyping the so-called Twitter Files to claim that Big Tech intervened in the 2020 election.
Mindy Robinson in front of an American flag holding a gun and winking
  • Patrick Byrne was previously Overstock’s CEO and was banned in January 2021 for election misinformation. He has used his reinstatement to undermine COVID-19 vaccines and continue to cast doubt on the 2020 election.
Patrick Byrne welcome back tweet
  • Greg Locke was banned from Twitter for violating the platform's COVID-19 misinformation policies in September 2021. After being reinstated, he has used his account for launching anti-LGBTQ attacks, calling the FBI corrupt, and saying, “WOKE IS A JOKE.”
Greg Locke welcome back tweet
  • Shiva Ayyadurai was suspended from Twitter in February 2021 and is a QAnon-linked former Republican gubernatorial candidate. Though seemingly reinstated on December 16, his first tweet was on December 20. He later promoted his website where people can pay to “educate your local community on issues of the day with real solutions, beyond ‘Left’ & ‘Right’ or ‘Pro-’ & ‘Anti-’.”
Shiva Ayyadurai welcome back tweet
  • Naomi Wolf was suspended from Twitter in June 2021 for violating the platform's COVID misinformation policies. After being reinstated, she tweeted, “Greetings. Signed, Deplatformed seven times and still right.”
Greetings, Deplatformed seven times and still right
  • Mike Coudrey is a Trump supporter who was banned from Twitter around January 6, 2021, after live-tweeting from the insurrection at the Capitol. He was reinstated on December 16 and has used his account to push right-wing culture war narratives about an “attack” in the nuclear family. 
Back on Twitter
  • Daniel Horowitz is a senior editor for conservative outlet TheBlaze who was banned in June for violating Twitter’s COVID-19 misinformation policies. He was reinstated on December 16 and has continued to promote information undermining vaccines.
Well folks, it looks like I'm back. I want to apologize for the misinformation.  For too long, I was underestimating the magnitude of injury from the COVID gene juice. I won't make that mistake again. Thank you  @elonmusk  for free speech, the right to dissent, and reasoned logic.
  • Wayne Allyn Root is a right-wing media figure who was banned from Twitter in February 2021 for election misinformation. After being reinstated on December 16, he has continued to push misleading election narratives.
I"M BAAACK! Liberal (ie communist traitor) heads get ready to explode! God bless Elon Musk. God bless President Trump. God bless free speech. And God Bless America!
  • Cari Kelemen was banned in February 2021 and thanked Musk for reinstating her account on December 17. She has since hyped up the Twitter Files and amplified right-wing talking points about immigration and culture war issues.
Good morning from another restored account!  I was abruptly suspended on Feb. 17, 2021, the day Rush Limbaugh died. The last thing I did was DM a Bible verse to  @BoSnerdley . If that's the reason I was suspended, that was unnecessarily cruel.  Thank you,  @elonmusk .
  • Larry Schweikart claims to have been banned in 2020, though he tweeted until February 6, 2021, and was brought back to the platform on December 16. He has used his platform to cast doubt on COVID-19 vaccines and promote right-wing media
LarrySchweikart reinstated on December 16
  • UncoverDC is a QAnon-linked website that was banned in January 2021 after posting a series of tweets casting doubt on the 2020 election. The account was reinstated on December 15.
UncoverDC reinstated
  • Young Pharaoh is an online commentator whose invitation to the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2021 was revoked after pushing antisemitism. He was banned from Twitter shortly after.
young pharaoh welcome back tweet
  • Canada’s Freedom Radio was reinstated in December and has since amplified Russian state media and cast doubt on COVID-19 vaccines.
Canada freedom radio retweeting RT
  • Bryson Gray was banned on December 11, during Musk's tenure as owner and CEO, but later had his account restored on December 13. Gray is a conservative musician who has used his account to amplify bigoted attacks against LGBTQ people and undermine COVID-19 vaccines.
RealBrysonGray saying he is back on Twitter

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