Elon Musk Under Fire After Russian Activist Yulia Navalny’s X/Twitter Account Was Put on Hold
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, experienced a rollercoaster of events on the social media platform X. Initially, her account was suspended, but it was later restored after being mistakenly flagged by the platform's anti-spam and manipulation system per Mirror.
Following Yulia and her team's upload of a video to YouTube demanding the return of her husband’s body and directly implicating Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death, the suspension swiftly followed. The suspension notice cited violation of X's rules without further explanation. However, after Yulia's supporters, including Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, tagged Elon Musk in a post on X, asking for clarification on the suspension, her account was reinstated less than an hour later.
Musk, who acquired X after it was formerly Twitter, has faced criticism for his apparent leniency towards Putin and the platform's role in spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation. Despite accusations of being an apologist for Putin, Musk has denied making X a "free speech zone" solely to counter perceived censorship of right-wing viewpoints, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Nonetheless, Russia also benefits from the business mogul's Starlink satellite services.
On her restored X account, Yulia continued her activism by urging the Kremlin to return her husband's body for a dignified burial.
In a nine-minute video, she pledged to uphold Navalny's legacy by continuing his opposition movement and advancing its goals. Navalny, a vocal critic of Putin, was serving a lengthy prison sentence when he died under suspicious circumstances in an Arctic penal colony at 47.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley criticized former President Donald Trump for his perceived silence following the death of Navalny, which many international leaders attribute to Putin. He hasn't even acknowledged Navalny's death." She emphasized Putin's track record of targeting political opponents. “I mean it’s amazing to me how weak in the knees he is when it comes to Putin. Because you look at the fact, he has yet to say anything about Navalny’s death,” Haley continued, per The Hill, quickly adding, “Putin murdered him. It’s what he does to his political opponents.”
“All he does is go on late-night rants talking about his court cases,” she commented on his constant social media tirades. “And, Steve, that’s the problem. We have Russia sitting there doing things. They’re now surrounding the Baltics, which if they go in and invade the Baltics, that — those are NATO countries,” Haley said. “That puts America at war. We have to prevent war.” Haley reiterated, “The focus we need to have is, how do we protect Americans? How do we prevent war? How do we get the border secure? How do we get our economy back on track? Not his personal grievances.”
