Nadler urges Republicans to investigate X's restrictions on Kamala Harris' campaign account, citing censorship concerns
The congressman from New York said the restrictions could be a form of "egregious censorship."
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Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., is pushing for the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Elon Musk’s X improperly prevented users from following an official presidential campaign account for Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday.
Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the committee, sent a letter to chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Monday morning saying that “numerous users” were blocked from following the “@KamalaHQ” account after President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed Harris for president. The letter was exclusively obtained by NBC News.
Regardless of political ideology, Americans have a protected interest in receiving Vice President Harris’ communications regarding her candidacy,” Nadler wrote. “Vice President Harris, in turn, has a right to communicate with the American people as she runs for the highest office in the country.”
“Unlike the countless conspiracy theories of political censorship that Republicans have chased down over the last year, X’s attempt to block users from following Vice President Harris’s campaign account appears to be a real example of online censorship,” Nadler said in an emailed response to a request for comment. “If House Republicans have even a shred of credibility left they will call out this blatant attempt to limit the Vice President’s voice and investigate immediately.”
This suggests that X may be intentionally throttling or blocking Vice President Harris’ ability to communicate with potential voters,” Nadler wrote. “If true, such action would amount to egregious censorship based on political and viewpoint discrimination — issues that this Committee clearly has taken very seriously.”
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Typically, X accounts that follow a large number of accounts in a short period of time will receive the “Limit reached” error message. The “Kamala HQ” account, which was previously a campaign account for Biden, received a huge influx of followers after Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris. It grew from less than half a million followers on Sunday to over 1 million followers on Tuesday.
