This week, what appeared to be a ham-fisted silencing of a large group of journalists and left-leaning activists on Elon Musk's X - the platform that we, frankly, generally still call Twitter - was shrugged off by Musk as a side effect of routine housecleaning of bots and fake accounts. Our friend and regular contributor Steven Monacelli, investigative reporter for the Texas Observer, was one of those who found themselves temporarily in Twitter jail this week; he's not accepting that lame explanation, and neither are we.

As the all-important 2024 election year spins up, will Twitter/X remain a place where the truth, and those who make it their life's work to seek out the truth, can count on an equitable playing field? Or, will it be subject to the whims of its increasingly erratic and childish billionaire owner, seemingly more interested in basking in the adoration of his right-wing conspiracist following than truly supporting "free speech" as he loves to claim?

Find Steven Monacelli's great work for the Texas Observer at ⁠https://www.texasobserver.org/author/steven-monacelli/⁠.

Thanks for your support! Please check out our web store and other ways to support our important work at ⁠https://progresstexas.org/⁠.