Elon Musk is facing censorship allegations after prominent right-wing accounts claimed they lost access to premium features on X when they criticized his views on immigration.

On Friday evening, musk called some anti-immigrant Republicans “despicable fools,” adding that they are “hateful, unrepentant racists” who “would absolutely spell the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed.”

According to NBC News, Sky News’ US partner, at least 14 conservative accounts that criticized Musk’s pro-legal immigration views said that

This took away their ability to monetize their accounts, and some said they were concerned about whether they would be able to continue posting on the platform.

When Musk bought the site in 2022, he said he had a policy of “freedom of speech” but not “freedom of reach,” meaning that negative posts would not be blocked but would be “deboosted to the maximum,” making them hard to find .

He said this policy would apply to individual tweets and not entire accounts.

Since then, Musk has described himself as a champion of free speech, even as he has called for some of his critics to be jailed.

X and Musk did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment on Friday

However, the tech billionaire posted on Thursday.

This led some to say he was “shadow banning” people who disagreed.

Shadowbanning occurs when the reach of an account is significantly restricted without there being an official explanation or acknowledgment of the restriction.

Heated immigration debate

The censorship allegations come amid a heated debate over immigration in the US.

It was sparked in part when Donald Trump named Indian-born entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as his artificial intelligence adviser, a move backed by Musk, the technology billionaire and government official.

Trump’s anti-immigration advocates attacked the appointment, and a prominent MAGA voice, Laura Loomer, called it “deeply troubling.”

She now claims about “75% of responses” to her account are flagged as likely spam by Musk’s platform following an online dispute with the billionaire.

Tesla founder Musk, who was born in South Africa and became a US citizen in 2002, has long supported skilled immigration.

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Last year he told his supporters: “We should significantly increase the legal immigration of anyone who is hard-working, honest and loves America.”

“Each of these people is an asset to the country.”

“But the massive illegal immigration of people we don’t know about is crazy.”

He has since reiterated this view several times, posting on Christmas Day: “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the US is far too small.”

“Think of it like a professional sports team: If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you have to recruit top talent wherever they are.”