Elon Musk’s stated ambition to make X — the new name for Twitter — the home of free speech on the internet has taken another knock after a New York University professor claimed he had been locked out of his account for speaking his mind about the site’s billionaire owner.
“A mutual friend reached out and said Elon feels ‘unfairly attacked,’ by me, and wants to meet,” wrote Professor Scott Galloway on X’s rival Threads. “I declined.
“2 days later I was locked out of ‘X.’”
A follow-up post clarified that his lockout has been going on for 17 days at the time of writing.
One of Galloway’s last tweets before the lockout was critical of Musk’s leadership of both Tesla and X.
Referencing Musk’s plan to make X an ‘everything app’ where users can pay for things, Galloway wrote: “Tesla intentionally gave drivers rosy driving range projections, leaving many stranded. BUT you should totally bank with X.”
He had also been a critic of Musk on TV, telling CNN amid last year’s chaotic takeover of the social network that the billionaire had a “God complex” and was a “terrible role model for young business people”.
“This is an individual who has demonstrated a total lack of grace, has no guardrails around him, and is going to see his wealth probably cut in half,” he added.
“I think we’re seeing the unwinding not of a company but of a person,” @profgalloway says of Elon Musk and Twitter. “I think this is an individual who has demonstrated a total lack of grace, has no guardrails around him, and is going to see his wealth probably cut in half.” pic.twitter.com/L7bwd0iq5Z
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) November 16, 2022
Musk hasn’t yet commented on the accusation from Galloway, though in 2021 he called him an “insufferable numbskull”.
If Galloway’s recounting of events is accurate, it certainly puts another dent in Musk’s stated commitment to free speech. Last April, he tweeted: “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”
Notably, this comes in the same week that X was accused of slowing down links to sites that Musk has expressed a dislike for, including the New York Times and Reuters, as well as rival platforms like BlueSky, Mastodon, and Threads.
The Evening Standard has contacted Musk for comment.
