Elon Musk’s X suspended the official account of a progressive-donor-backed ballot initiative called SwapYourVote ahead of the U.S. presidential election. By matching swing state voters with Democrats from solidly blue states, the volunteer-run website aims to encourage third parties to vote for Kamala Harris. On Tuesday, around 11 a.m. PT, X reinstated the X account after suspending it two days earlier, on Sunday, for spam.
An X spokesperson explained that their automated spam defense system had flagged the account by mistake. The platform’s rules don’t allow automated tools to boost information sharing.
Vote swapping isn’t new to American politics. It first gained attention during the 2000 presidential election when over 36,000 Ralph Nader and Al Gore supporters exchanged votes. For the 2024 election, SwapYourVote has already attracted nearly 12,000 voters. While this might seem small, it could make a real difference in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona, where elections are often decided by just a few thousand votes.
The SwapYourVote team remains puzzled about the suspension. A spokesperson said they wonder if their new account’s high posting activity triggered spam filters, though they find the timing suspicious so close to the election.
X’s content moderation has been unpredictable during the 2024 election season, despite Musk’s promise of making X a free speech platform. Recently, Clemson University found 686 AI-powered bots running political campaigns on X, many promoting Trump and GOP messages. In September, X also suspended a journalist’s account for sharing JD Vance’s leaked documents and later blocked access to them, calling them harmful.
While SwapYourVote’s X account was down, their presence on other social platforms like TikTok and Instagram remained active and accessible.
