Will Musk Take Action against X Censorship?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jan. 21, 2025) — On January 11, The Post & Email provided an update on the “X” accounts of Johannes Froebel-Parker, an author, columnist art historian and researcher of the Romanov family, after suspension of both without cause.

In October 2022, entrepreneur multi-billionaire and newly-appointed “DOGE” co-leader Elon Musk purchased the social-media platform Twitter, promising to restore free speech and numerous accounts silenced under the company’s previous leadership.

Musk renamed the platform “X,” laid off a significant number of employees, and made pledges to improve the site’s usability and speed.

According to The Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, Musk terminated two engineers who criticized his management style and understanding of the platform’s technical operations.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, a former Democrat, Musk threw his support behind Trump, who vehemently decried online censorship, as he himself had experienced on Facebook and Twitter following the January 6, 2021 disturbance at the U.S. Capitol.

Through one of the accounts, Froebel-Parker paid for advertising for his latest book, “Grand Duchess Anastasia: Still a Mystery?”

As reported earlier, after inquiring of X why he was deplatformed, Froebel-Parker received either automated confirmation claiming his accounts committed “multiple or repeat violations of the X Rules: https://x.com/rules” or acknowledgements of his appeal with an invitation to “respond to this email with the reason you believe your account suspension was in error and/or the reason you are requesting an appeal.”

In response to one such reply, Froebel-Parker sent to X:

Some days after @froebel was suspended my secondary account, begun in 2015, was given a BLUE CHECK (for which I paid). It was then suspended although it was not a new account, never spammed, perhaps only posted a few times since @froebel suspension, including one to Elon Musk asking him why @Froebel had been inordinately targeted.

Here a link to an article about this ongoing appeal process: https://www.thepostemail.com/2025/01/11/author-continues-to-appeal-x-suspension/

Some interesting commentary from a reader at end of article.

Best JOHN

On Sunday, January 19, Froebel-Parker received a reply from the former category in which X restated:

Your account was suspended due to multiple or repeat violations of the X Rules: https://x.com/rules.

This account will not be restored.

This case will now be closed and replies will not be monitored. 

The same day, Froebel-Parker took the opportunity to respond with:

Yes, you have written this explanation myriad times which does not match my assessment. Is “X” unable to explain WHICH infraction it saw? Would it not be more USER FRIENDLY to inform the user of the first perceived “infraction?” The other account, @449_518, was suspended even though it was from 2015.  I had just paid and been reviewed before receiving a Blue Check on that account. 

Does this have to do with the 1.2 MILLION views on the last promotion from @froebel?

Or is this an X attempt, for whatever reason, to hinder the commercial promotion of my latest book: histriabooks.com/product/grand-duchess-anastasia?

cc: Histria Books

Finally on Monday, Froebel-Parker decided to write directly to Musk at his new “X” headquarters in Texas to ask for redress.

In the handwritten letter, Froebel-Parker told Musk his letter represented a “last resort” in resolving his suspended accounts after his “myriad” attempts to interact meaningfully with X support services. He additionally offered to send Musk a “signed copy” of the book he advertised on X, a hardcover with striking artwork by Barbara Green positing that the youngest Romanov child, Anastasia, survived the bullets and bayonets of a Bolshevik firing squad in July 1918.