Twitter blocks “White Dudes For Harris” account after $4 million donation appeal

The social platform X (formerly Twitter) blocked the account of the organization “White Dudes for Harris” after nearly 200,000 supporters took part in a fundraising video call for Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy for the Oval Office.

The account @dudes4harris was suspended Monday night for violating the X-Rules “as a result of a user report,” according to a screenshot from Mike Nellis, one of the account’s operators. As of Tuesday morning, @dudes4harris was still suspended and “permanently in read-only mode.”

“We scared @elonmusk and @DonaldJTrumpJr so bad tonight that they locked our account and won’t let us back in,” Nellis wrote on his own X page, using the names of X owner Elon Musk and the son of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “These guys are scared of the success we had tonight, but we won’t give up.”

Celebrities such as Jeff Bridges, Josh Groban, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lance Bass were among those who participated in the White Dudes for Harris fundraiser, which raised $4 million for Harris’ Democratic campaign. On X, the White Dudes for Harris account describes itself as “Just a couple of guys supporting Kamala Harris.”

When HuffPost asked for comment, X automatically replied, “Busy at the moment, please check back later.”

Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and then renamed it X, was previously accused of silencing critics after his platform suspended the accounts of several journalists who had written critically about him; their accounts were later restored. Musk describes himself as a free speech advocate, but X has sued organizations such as Media Matters for America and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which have investigated X and published reports on the social media site. The lawsuit against the latter group has since been dismissed.

Earlier this month, Musk announced that he would “fully” support Trump in the 2024 presidential election. And over the weekend, Musk called Harris an “extinction campaigner” after she said she understood why young people were hesitant to start a family.