On the day of the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and newly minted Democratic Party presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, numerous posts showing support for Trump or Republican policy positions were labeled “Adult Content” on X.
X labeled videos from the Trump War Room, Turning Point USA Founder and CEO Charlie Kirk, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and others with an “Adult Content” warning. The posts featured content including a Pennsylvania Trump supporter explaining why he is voting for Trump and a Rep. Byron Donalds(R-FL) interview comparing the U.S. economy before and after Joe Biden became president.
MRC Vice President for Free Speech Dan Schneider commented, “Elon Musk has been a true champion for free speech, but we have been warning for months that there is a radical remnant revolting against his leadership at the company. And just like before the Biden-Trump debate, we are again seeing how this renegade group is trying to hide information about the radical policies supported by Trump’s opponent.”
Trump War Room posted a video featuring a BBC interview in which a Trump supporter explained his distrust for Kamala. The account captioned its post “Former Pennsylvania steel worker: "I would believe Donald Trump. I don't believe Harris. She's been there three and a half years and hasn't done nothing." X inexplicably placed an interstitial over the post that read “X labeled this post as containing Adult Content.”
Former Pennsylvania steel worker: "I would believe Donald Trump. I don't believe Harris. She's been there three and a half years and hasn't done nothing." pic.twitter.com/K5e5yCcunQ
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 10, 2024
In another Trump War Room post, the account posted a video of a CNN interview with Donalds. "Inflation when Donald Trump left office was 1.4 percent year-over-year,” he said. "When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office, many states were already back to work — their economies were already opening. And when they wanted to do his 'American Rescue Plan,' which she co-signed because she was the tie-breaking vote, we told them on Capitol Hill, ‘You're going to create a labor shortage, which is going to create inflation,’" Donalds said in the video, which was quoted in part in the post caption. The post received the same bizarre “Adult Content” label.
.@ByronDonalds: "Inflation when Donald Trump left office was 1.4% year-over-year... When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office, many states were already back to work... and when they wanted to his 'American Rescue Plan,' which she co-signed, we told them on Capitol Hill,… pic.twitter.com/2c4UWJ8I8p
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 10, 2024
The platform also suppressed a clip of Rubin Report during which podcast host Dave Rubin critiqued the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous immigration policy and a humorous video posted by Kirk in which Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) complained about the memes of Trump saving kittens and ducks from migrants. Both were also deemed “Adult Content.”
Finally, Rep. Greene posted a video in which she explained the Save Act and the continuing resolution budget bill.
Although X users can change their settings so that sensitive or “adult” content appears in their feeds, these settings default to censoring this content and in many cases content that does not obviously belong to one of those categories. The platform has since removed the labels on some of the posts.
The Media Research Center has argued that continued censorship on the platform and other apparent errors may be due to a remnant inside X that continues to rebel against X owner Elon Musk’s stated free speech vision for his company.
Evidence of this ghost of Twitter past includes the fact that according to X’s own AI, Grok, the platform’s recommendation algorithm skewed in favor of Democrat politicians. X gives each account a “Reputation” or purported reliability and an account with a score below 65 will rarely if ever be recommended by X, according to Grok. MRC Free Speech America discovered that of 100 senators, the 43 lowest scores were nearly all belonging to Republican politicians.
Last year a couple of Twitter Trust and Safety employees also left the company after Musk reversed their decision to back out of promoting The Daily Wire’s “What is a Woman” documentary.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment and provide an equal platform for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
