In September 2024, news spread that if she wins the US presidential election, the Democratic candidate is going to block the popular social network. The basis for this is a video in which the politician allegedly puts forward a corresponding initiative. We have verified the veracity of this news.

On September 3, 2024, Russian media and Telegram channels reported on an excerpt from an interview with US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, in which the politician allegedly calls for censorship or even blocking the social network X. The authors of many publications referred to a statement by the platform owner, Elon Musk. For example, TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov in his Telegram channel (223,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) reported: “American authorities will demand the removal of social network app X if Harris is elected president of the United States, Elon Musk said.” Notes with similar headings were published “RIA Novosti", "TASS", Lenta.ru, "Vedomosti", "Rambler / News", "National News Service"etc.

The excitement about possible restrictions on the work of social network X in the United States flared up against the backdrop of a scandal in Brazil. In April 2024 Musk stated, which will restore accounts that the Latin American country's Supreme Court previously ordered blocked for spreading fake news and inciting hatred. According to X, Judge Alexandre Moraes threatened the arrest of one of the platform's representatives in Brazil if the orders are not followed. Because of this, in mid-August, owner X announced termination of the platform’s activities in Brazil due to “censorship requirements”, thereby the social network violated local legislation, according to which Such services must have their own authorized representative in the country. Brazilian authorities obliged Musk appointed a new representative within 24 hours, but this condition was not met. Then on August 30 the court demanded block X in the country, and Apple and Google remove the social network application from their stores.

During the active phase of the conflict, Musk published numerous tweets accusing Judge Moraes of censorship and warned that if Harris wins the presidential election in November 2024, the social network faces a similar fate in the United States. For example, on September 3, 2024, a businessman wrote: “Fake judge forces Apple and Google to remove X from their app stores. This will happen here too if Kamala is elected president.” Exactly this tweet quoted many Russian-language media. Some Telegram channels also attached fragment video of Harris allegedly talking about the need to block X.

This video appeared on popular blogs on the social network X @EndWokeness And @ClownWorld_ approximately simultaneously on August 31st. The original tweeter captioned the video: “Kamala supports what Brazil just did to X. How do I know? She wants to do it here (in the video - Ed.).” The second tweet said: "Kamala will shut down X if she wins." In the video, Harris says, “He has lost his privileges and should be shut down. After all, we can't have one set of standards for Facebook and another for Twitter. There should be the same rules for everything, namely, social media sites must be responsible and understand the power of their influence. They are directly targeting millions of people without any oversight or regulation and it needs to stop.”

September 3 Musk retweeted @EndWokeness post, accompanied by the 💯 emoji, and former US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released out of the race and supported Trump, shared tweeted @ClownWorld_ and wrote: "Kamala Harris: 'He [Musk] has lost his privilege.' Can someone explain to her that freedom of speech is a RIGHT and not a “privilege”?” The politician added: “Translation (of Harris’s words - editor’s note): If social networks do not police content so that it supports state-endorsed narratives, they will be closed." A few hours later Musk commented Kennedy tweeted: “She really believes it. Freedom of speech is the basis of democracy, and the Democratic Party (Kamala is just a puppet) wants to destroy it.”

Although the viral video of Harris' controversial statement is real, the politician's words were taken out of context. This is a fragment interview, which Harris (then a senator from California and a participant in the Democratic primary) gave to CNN in 2019. The politician then commented not on the social network in general, but on the posts of President Donald Trump. CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Harris to clarify her call to block the head of state's personal account. She responded, "Trump has demonstrated that he is capable of obstructing justice," and also added that his tweets can determine people's actions, citing the example of shooting in El Paso (23 people became victims of the shooter, another 22 were injured). “Read the El Paso shooter's manifesto and it becomes clear that Donald Trump's words on Twitter have an impact on people's perceptions of what they should and should not do. He (Trump - Ed.) has lost his privileges and his [Twitter account] should be closed." However, Harris did not call for closing the platform itself. After all Twitter blocked Trump's account, citing "the risk of further incitement of violence," after assault US Capitol on January 6, 2021. In November 2022, Musk bought the social network, which he then renamed X, and restored the former president's account, although he continued to use his own platform, Truth Social.

Thus, in the viral video, Harris did not call for closing the social network X. The fragment was cut from the politician’s interview with CNN five years ago, in which she talks about the need to block Trump’s account because of his “calls for violence,” which, according to her, provoked the massacre in El Paso.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons