Elon Musk's X reinstates transgender Harvard lawyer's account after suspension

Alejandra Caraballo, a transgender attorney and instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, informed The Advocate on Wednesday that her X account has been restored but locked for seven days. This development follows a Tuesday notice of suspension from the platform, previously known as Twitter, which sparked widespread discussion about its moderation policies under owner Elon Musk.

Caraballo’s suspension was initially issued after her efforts to highlight the activities of an alleged neo-Nazi cartoonist going by the pseudonym StoneToss, identified by Wired as Hans Kristian Graebener. On Tuesday night, Libs of TikTok tried to take a victory lap, celebrating the suspension, but it was short-lived.

“My Twitter account has been reinstated from a permanent suspension but is still locked for another 7 days,” Caraballo wrote on the social media platform Bluesky Wednesday. “I want to thank Chaya Raichik for raising my account suspension and getting Elon to personally look into it and reinstate my account. Her wanting to get an own on me backfired spectacularly.”

Late Tuesday, in response to commentary from Chaya Raichik, who runs the anti-LGBTQ+ hate account Libs of TikTok, Musk indicated via X that he was unaware of the specific reasons for Caraballo’s suspension. He later clarified that the action was due to “several doxxing violations,” specifying that the suspension would be brief.

Doxxing includes the involuntary public release of non-public information, like somebody’s phone number or address. X’s policy surrounding the prohibited release of information clearly indicates that naming individuals falls under publicly accessible information, thus not breaching its rules.

Graebener was allegedly identified as a cartoonist, StoneToss, who creates anti-Semitic, transphobic, homophobic, and racist content that critics note shows neo-Nazi sympathy. After news of his name circulated on social media, X began suspending researchers, journalists, and other content creators who amplified the identification. Critics of X have voiced concerns over the platform’s handling of hate speech and its approach to penalizing users involved in calling out extremism while protecting those who share harmful content about transgender and gender-expansive people.

This episode has intensified scrutiny of Musk’s stewardship of X, particularly following an interview with gay journalist Don Lemon. In the interview, Musk asserted the platform’s reluctance to remove content or ban users unless their posts directly contravened the law. Lemon had raised issues regarding the presence of racist, anti-trans, and otherwise harmful content on X.

According to GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index, X is the most dangerous mainstream social media platform for LGBTQ+ user safety.

A spokesperson from GLAAD strongly condemned the environment on X for LGBTQ+ and particularly trans individuals. “LGBTQ people, trans people in particular, are subjected to pervasive and baseless hate, bullying and harassment on X. It’s abhorrent to see that X has been suspending and suppressing the accounts of trans community leader and researcher Alejandra Caraballo and other researchers and journalists for pointing out that a neo-Nazi extremist is in fact, a neo-Nazi extremist,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Advocate.

They further criticized the platform’s direction under Musk, writing, “Under Elon Musk’s leadership, X continues to devolve into an unsafe cesspool of hate and extremism and suppression of civil society voices.” The spokesperson also highlighted the negative impact of Musk’s actions and policies.“The site’s rollbacks of protections for trans users, coupled with the relentless bigotry of Musk himself, is disgusting,” the spokesperson said. They also emphasized the dangerous consequences of such rhetoric, warning, “We know online anti-LGBTQ rhetoric inspires and incubates offline harms. Musk himself is a key player in creating a climate of hate, fear, and violence on the platform.”

X did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment.