Is Tucker Carlson’s Twitter Account Being Suppressed By Elon Musk’s Twitter?
Tucker Carlson’s Twitter account, followed by 5.8 million people, appeared on Tuesday night and into Wednesday to be hidden from the website’s internal search results.
Carlson’s main account not showing up on the search page coincided with bizarre changes being made to his Twitter bio, which resulted in some hackers taking credit.
It’s not just the Fox News host’s profile that appears to be shaddowbanned on Twitter. Recent tweets from Carlson providing answers of 2024 presidential hopefuls to a survey on Ukraine also appeared as “unavailable.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) Deputy Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern called out the bizarre limits on Carlson’s account in a tweet – complete with screenshots.
“Hey, @elonmusk… Why is @TuckerCarlson’s main account banned from the search results, and why are the answers to his questions about Ukraine being censored?” wrote Redfern on Tuesday night.
Gregg Re, a producer on Tucker Carlson Tonight, replied to Redfern noting, “Thanks for flagging this. Inevitably we will learn this is one of many “mistakes” that seem to always go in the same direction.”
Twitter has been mired in glitches recently, including a major one last week in which users were unable to post links or images on the platform. Notably, if you searched Carlson’s Twitter handle his account did not appear in search results — although some users claimed for them it still did — while Elon Musk’s account appeared as the top search result.
Additionally, the fact that Carlson’s bio on the website has continued to go through wild edits could mean that the account was temporarily shadowbanned while the company worked to verify who was actually in control of it.
On Tuesday night, Carlon’s bio read, “Non-binary climate change activist of color. Visionary tech founder. CNBC market analyst. Informal Zelensky advisor” – finished off with two transgender pride emojis.
By Wednesday morning the bio read, “Emmy-award-winning broadcast journalist, graduate of Harvard College & Yale Law School. Frequent visitor to the Aspen Inst. Fully vaccinated. She/Hers” – finished off with two Ukrainian flags.
Other users also noted that the “unavailable” tweets could still be embedded and the content would show up, which signals just another potential glitch for Twitter. However, the fact that critical, soft on support for Ukraine answers from Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis were “unavailable,” while ex-Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-NJ) hawkish, pro-Ukraine answer was raised eyebrows.
Redfern accused Twitter of anti-right bias, by arguing that a tweet about DeSantis was also being wrongly suppressed. “Happening to the governor, as well. Frustrating because @elonmusk said he’d stop this nonsense,” Redfern wrote on Tuesday night over a tweet marked “hateful conduct” and having its visibility limited.
Mediaite reached out to Twitter’s downsized communications department for comment and did not receive a response.
