Congressman Says X May Be Throttling Kamala Harris' Campaign Account

Topline

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., called on the House Judiciary Committee to investigate Elon Musk’s X on Tuesday, one day after users on the platform said they were unable to follow Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign account, which Nadler called a “serious and time-sensitive censorship issue” as Harris is at the start of her presidential campaign after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race Sunday.

Harris announced her run for president on Sunday. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Nadler urged the Republican-controlled committee to request information from X, formerly known as Twitter, regarding the “apparent censorship,” arguing Americans and Harris have a protected interest and right to engage with each other on social media as the vice president makes her run for president, according to a letter sent to the committee’s chair, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Specifically, Nadler is seeking an explanation for why certain users were prevented from following the campaign account, the total number of users who tried and failed to follow it, what actions were taken to address the matter and whether Musk was involved in “directing, encouraging, or coercing any employee at X to throttle or limit any user” from following the account.

Multiple X users on Monday posted that they were stopped from following Harris’ campaign page and received a message saying they could not do so because a follow limit was reached, with some users claiming they had not actually reached the limit and were able to follow other accounts.

X limits the speed at which users can follow other accounts, allowing them to follow up to 400 users per day—though the platform notes the maximum number of accounts users can follow is “different for each account and is automatically calculated based on your unique ratio of followers to following.”

The “Kamala HQ” account gained more than 500,000 new followers from Sunday to Monday after Harris announced her run for president and Biden endorsed her.

X did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment and Musk has not publicly posted about or replied to the complaints from users claiming they could not follow Harris’ page.

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Tangent

X has policies and anti-bot measures against the artificial inflation of followers or engagement, although Musk has acknowledged the measures have not worked perfectly, saying in January a spam/scam bot on X accidentally flagged multiple legitimate accounts. Months later, during a bot purge, Musk and X told followers to let them know if genuine accounts were impacted or suspended during the process.

Forbes Valuation

We estimate Musk’s net worth at $248.7 billion as of Tuesday, making him the world’s wealthiest person.

Key Background

Harris’ campaign for president began Sunday after Biden dropped out, which came amid intense pressure from dozens of Democrats in Congress to do so following a rough debate performance in June. Harris’ campaign account had around 400,000 followers prior to her announcement, according to screenshots included in Nadler’s letter, and has 1 million followers as of Tuesday evening. X says the “limit reached” message received by users complaining about not being able to follow Harris’ page can come as a result of reaching daily follow limits, following too many accounts too quickly, hitting a follower-following ratio limit or because an account is locked or limited for other reasons. However, in at least one case, an X user claimed they successfully followed other accounts shortly after receiving the “limit reached” message when they attempted to follow Harris’ page.