White Dudes for Harris Founders Blame Elon Musk for X Account Suspension (hollywoodreporter.com)
The account was unable to advocate for donations the day after a major event featuring politicians and celebrities brought in around $4 million or Kamala Harris' presidential bid.
By Kevin Dolak
July 30, 2024 4:19pm
Two of the founders of White Dudes for Harris, a political organizing group and popular Zoom meeting that gained massive popularity and raised a reported $4 million-plus for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid this week, blamed Elon Musk for its official X (formerly Twitter) account being suspended following an enormous fundraising event that saw around 200,000 attendees tune in.
Early on Tuesday morning, Ross Morales Rocketto, who helped launch White Dudes For Harris in the days following President Joe Biden leaving the 2024 Democratic ticket, wrote on X that the @dudes4harris account on the platform had been suspended and that there was no reason given. This came on the heels of a successful three-hour and 20-minute initial Zoom call on Monday night that featured celebrities and politicians drumming up support for Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The image included with that X post reads “4 million + raise 190K attendees 1 scared billionaire,” referencing Monday night’s fundraising haul and count of those who logged in to the Zoom meeting or watched on the YouTube page that broadcast its proceedings live.
It’s unclear what rules were violated by the @dudes4harris account that would lead to its suspension; Mike Nellis, an organizer for White Dudes for Harris, posted on his personal X account, during the hours that the account was suspended, an email sent by the company indicating the suspension was the result of a violation of the platform’s rules against “evading suspension” and that it was initiated by a user report.
On Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter sent an email to X’s press department asking for the reason for the suspension and also to respond to the suggestion it was ordered by Musk. The company’s reply read, “Busy now, please check back later” — the second day in a row THR has received this reply from X.
The suspension was brief and at 12:47 p.m., the account posted the following message: “WE ARE SO BACK! After a groundswell of grassroots complaints to @ElonMusk from the #WhiteDudesforHarris community, our account was reinstated & we’re allowed to post again. Thank you for coming to our aid & carrying on this conversation in our absence. More to come!”
Musk, who purchased Twitter and transformed it into X in 2022, has called for a free flow of ideas to be part of the platform’s ethos and that it become “The town square of the internet.” However, upon taking control of Twitter in 2022, he famously suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists who covered him.
This story has been updated to reflect the correct amount brought in by Monday’s fundraiser. |
