When Elon Musk acquired X, then-known as Twitter, he proudly proclaimed that his social media platform would be a place where freedom of speech reigned.
According to Musk, only content deemed yasadışı by government law would be removed. All other speech – including hate speech – would be fair game to publish on X.
With that being said, why are users now reporting that X is removing posts and suspending accounts who simply post the name “Hans Kristian Graebener?”
A far-right webcomic creator unmasked
Last week, Anonymous Comrades Collective, an online group that describe themselves as an “antifascist journalism collective dedicated to exposing Nazis, racists and fascists” published a new report alleging to have uncovered the person behind StoneToss, a webcomic popular among the far right.
According to Anonymous Comrades Collective, the group was able to tie numerous old online accounts, audio livestreams, and GamerGate-era photographs to StoneToss and his alleged real-life identity as a Texas-based IT consultant named Hans Kristian Graebener.
StoneToss was started in 2017 by an anonymous individual, allegedly Graebener, who clearly had far-right sympathies. However, as more comics have been published over the years, the ideologies espoused by StoneToss have included antisemitism, racism, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. One particularly infamous StoneToss comic, for example, engages in Holocaust denial.
The Anonymous Comrades Collective’s report and a thread detailing it’s finding on its X account @anoncommiestan quickly went spread among political activists familiar with StoneToss and its far-right comics.
https://twitter.com/theserfstv/status/1768143973015581053″ target=”_blank” title=”(opens in a new window)” rel=”noopener
Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic, for example, had her X account suspended for 12 hours after posting the name “Hans Kristian Graebener.” After she was unsuspended, she shared screenshots of other suspended users’ posts and was suspended again.
Caraballo provided screenshots of the suspensions to Mashable. According to Caraballo, the most recent violation, which resulted in a 7-day suspension from X, was dolled out after she changed her X account’s profile name to “Hans Kristian Graebener is StoneToss” in reaction to users being suspended for including the name in their posts. She is able to access the X feed and DM her followers. However, she is unable to post to her account.
Others, such as extremism research Jared Holt, Texas Observer reporter Steven Monacelli, and Hannah Gais of the Southern Poverty Law Center, have been temporarily suspended and their posts removed for mentioning “Hans Kristian Graebener.” Their accounts were reactivated after deleting the tweets with the name.
https://twitter.com/theserfstv/status/1768769974577844364″ target=”_blank” title=”(opens in a new window)” rel=”noopener
“Any doxxing, which includes revealing real names, will result in account suspension,” Musk said in a reply to @KanekoaTheGreat post about the attempts to uncover their identity.
Again, X’s written policy does not reflect Musk’s rule. In fact, Musk özgü interacted with posts from his favorite right-wing accounts that would violate Musk’s personal definition of doxxing. Yet, as Lance of The Serfs pointed out, those users were not suspended.
Musk not only changes X policy on a whim, but also selectively enforces these very policies as well.
In another similar example of this, Musk himself recently took action to change a newly written policy on X that claimed it would demote content that misgendered or dead-named (i.e. using a transgender persons former name) users on the platform.
Following complaints from his right-wing followers, Musk had the policy rewritten to specifically say this would only be the case in localities where the law required it.
If using a name that a trans person does not publicize and doesn’t want used isn’t against X policy, it certainly doesn’t make sense that posting “Hans Kristian Graebener” is against X policy. And if the latter does fall under Musk’s definition of doxxing, why doesn’t the former?
Nearly one week after Alejandra Caraballo was suspended for posting “Hans Kristian Graebener,” her account’s public status was shifted from “locked,” meaning you can still see a user’s profile page and interact with it, to “suspended,” which completely removes an account from public view.
Musk’s right-wing followers noticed this change and inquired if Caraballo was permanently suspended.
“Yeah, the team just informed me that there were several doxxing violations by this account, despite repeated warnings,” Musk said. “The suspension is just for a few days, but the suspension time will increase with each repeated violation.”
Shortly after Musk’s comment, Caraballo’s profile was visible on X again.
Caraballo confirmed to Mashable that her account was activated again, switched back to its original locked status. However, she informed us that her suspension was just extended to another 7-days.
Musk’s claim that Caraballo will only be suspended for “a few days” doesn’t line up with what X’s original suspension emails told her. It’s unclear exactly when she’ll be unsuspended.
“It’s clear that Musk’s X works to protect neo-nazis by inventing new rules that are not in the terms of service and arbitrarily suspending accounts who even mention the name behind the StoneToss account,” Caraballo said in a statement provided to Mashable, referring to the comic creator’s alleged identity. “The suspension is just another example of how Twitter protects extremists while applying arbitrary rules to accounts who call them out,” she added.