Despite Elon Musk presenting X as a bastion of free speech since he took over the platform, a debate over US visas for highly skilled workers has several right-wing figures crying censorship.
As Axios reports, conservative influencer Laura Loomer says she has experienced “full censorship” of her account after “she called out H-1B visas.”
“[Musk] has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H-1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China,” Loomer posted on Thursday.
“This is anti-American behavior by tech oligarchs,” she added.
New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax and Owen Shroyer, host of right-wing online media outlet InfoWars, also alleged their verification badges disappeared after they criticized Musk’s support for H-1B visas, which are commonly issued to those in the tech sector.
Roughly 65,000 H-1B visas, and 20,000 additional visas for foreign professionals who graduated with a master’s degree or doctorate from a US school, were granted in the US last year, with many going to Musk-controlled companies such as SpaceX and Tesla.
“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk tweeted. (Musk was born in South Africa and became a US citizen in 2002.)
In a post earlier this month, Musk defended the H-1B visa and said that engineering talent simply does not exist in America “in sufficient quantity” to meet demand. He clarified in a later post that he was “referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning,” comparing America to a pro basketball team that signs high-level talent from abroad.
According to the American Immigration Council, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “denied a larger percentage of H-1B petitions [during Donald Trump’s first term] than in the preceding four years. But with a growing number of these denials being overturned, the denial rates decreased substantially during the latter half of FY 2020.”
During the Biden administration, denials of new H-1B petitions for initial employment were at 4% in FY 2021 and 2% in FY 2022, “the two lowest denial rates ever recorded.” Denial rates for continuing employment was 2% in both FY 2022 and FY 2021, down from 7% in FY 2020 and 12% in both FY 2018 and FY 2019.
In an interview with New York Post this weekend, Trump said he has “many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”
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As for Loomer, Musk has so far dismissed her claims, claiming that she is “trolling for attention.” (It’s a familiar tactic. In 2018, she handcuffed herself to Twitter’s NYC offices after it banned her.)
Musk instead posted an explanation of how X’s algorithm works. “If far more credible, verified subscriber accounts (not bots) mute/block your account compared to those who like your posts, your reach will decline significantly.”
Loomer’s main concern appears to be that she can no longer monetize her content without verification on X. Her account is still live.
This wouldn’t be the first time that X has been accused of censorship under Musk’s rule. In September, X was found to be blocking a research report shared by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein on Vice President-elect JD Vance, which was allegedly leaked by Iranian hackers.
The news comes after Musk, who has called himself a “free speech absolutist” in the past, criticized Twitter in 2022 for removing shares of a New York Post story that contained private information found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.
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About Will McCurdy
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