Elon Musk Under Scrutiny After Navalny’s Widow’s X/Twitter Account Was Temporarily Suspended

Navalny Team via AP

Yulia Navalnya, the widow of the late Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was temporarily suspended from Twitter/X on Tuesday after purportedly violating the platform’s rules.

A day after Navalnya and her team posted a video to YouTube demanding the return of her husband’s body to his family and directly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death, Navalnya’s account was suspended on the social media platform. As of this writing, no explanation was offered beyond the text that appeared on her suspended account: “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules.”

@yulia_navalnaya on Twitter/X

The video was also posted to Navalnya’s Twitter/X account, but no explanation has been given as to what rules she may have violated.

Following her suspension on Twitter/X, a message from Navalnya posted on Tuesday included a strong message calling out the Russian government. The translation reads:

I don’t care how the killer’s press secretary comments on my words. Give back Alexei’s body and let him be buried with dignity, don’t stop people from saying goodbye to him.

And I really ask all journalists who may still ask questions: don’t ask about me, ask about Alexei.

Several Twitter/X users have had the same question, including CNN’s Jake Tapper who simply asked “Why?” and addressed his question to Twitter/X owner Elon Musk.

Musk has been criticized for being an apparent apologist for Putin, and the changes he made to the social media platform after he acquired it in late 2022 have only assisted in the spread of Russian propaganda and disinformation.

But Musk has always denied he was acting in the name of making Twitter/X a “free speech zone” after believing it was censoring certain (right-wing) viewpoints. And while his looser regulations opened the door for Russian state-backed activity, according to The Wall Street Journal, Russia also benefits from Musk’s Starlink satellite services.

But Musk’s seeming predilection for Russia has also been public, where he has openly praised Putin by saying “There is no way in hell that Putin is going to lose” against Ukraine and urged U.S. politicians not to pass a bill giving aid to Ukraine.

Despite all of this, Musk called accusations that he was an apologist for Putin “absurd.”