Far-right activist Laura Loomer said Elon Musk is retaliating against her by suspending her X account, taking away her verification badge and demonetizing her subscriptions over their feud about foreign work visas.

“It’s just pure retaliation at this point,” Loomer told Newsweek in an interview on Thursday. “I’ve asked for multiple people to get back to me on this, and nobody’s getting back to me.”

“I’m being directly targeted by Twitter and Elon,” she said.

Newsweek reached out to X via email for comment.

Why It Matters

The tit-for-tat reflects a roiling debate within the MAGA movement over the value of H-1B visas and so-called “highly skilled” migration. Musk and President-elect Donald Trump have staked out a position that programs like H-1B are critical for the U.S. in attracting the best and brightest workers from around the world. Others, like Loomer, say they represent an end run that allow corporations, mostly tech companies, to avoid hiring American workers for jobs that end up going to foreigners.

Loomer slammed Musk as a hypocrite for referring to himself as a “free speech absolutist,” only to restrict her speech on his platform.

When Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, he complained that the platform wasn’t living up to its potential as a “platform for free speech” and argued that it was necessary the site be revamped since “Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” Musk took particular issue with conservative speech that he said was being unfairly limited on the platform. Twitter was rebranded X in July 2023 after Musk purchased the company.

After he took over, several accounts that had previously been banned from Twitter indefinitely, including those belonging to Loomer and Trump, were reinstated amid a broader movement against restricting speech.

What to Know

The fallout between Loomer and Musk began on December 23, when she criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his incoming administration. She said Krishnan, who has advocated for raising country-specific caps on green cards to bring skilled worker to the U.S., has views that are “in direct opposition to Trump’s America First Agenda.”

“This is very troubling. Mind you, none of the tech executives who are meeting with Trump and getting appointed in his cabinet supported him in 2020 or during the 2024 primary,” Loomer said. “I feel like many of them are trying to get into Trump’s admin to enrich themselves and get contracts at DOD. This is not America First policy.”

Musk, who has benefited from the H-1B visa program himself, defended the tech industry’s need to bring over works from abroad, saying that a “shortage of excellent engineering talent” is a “fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”

As Trump supporters took sides over who was right, Musk accused Loomer of “trolling for attention,” while Loomer appeared to attack the billionaire in a post that read: “President Trump’s most loyal fighters with the biggest audiences in MAGA are all anti-Big Tech and we are nauseated with Big Tech bros who think we are peasants and dumb. The Big Tech sleepovers & fake love fest at Mar-a-Lago will be over soon you guys.”

A day later, Loomer said her X account was suspended for 12 hours. When she was allowed to return to the platform, she said her verification was gone, her subscriptions taken away and her post was deleted. Since, she said all her posts on X and other posts mentioning her account are being labeled as “probable spam.”

On December 29, she apologized for accidentally doxxing Krishnan by sharing public federal Election Commission records that included his personal information, saying: “It was an honest mistake, and I take full responsibility.” She said she has since removed the post in question, but noted that there are other X posts that include FEC filings with sensitive information that remain publicly available to view on the platform.

“[There are] other people using FEC reports without blurring the addresses and their their posts are still up, and they never got their blue checks taken away,” she said. “It’s selective outrage. I also pay for Premium and they’re charging my card and not getting back to me.”

X Premium is a paid subscriptions that offers additional features for users, including blue checkmarks, reduced ads, access to apply for ad revenue and creator subscriptions, wider visibility and access to the site’s AI chatbot, Grok.

“If you’re going to charge me for Premium, how can you not give it to me?” Loomer asked. “How can you say that it’s a violation of the rules to post an FEC record and then allow for other people to do the same and still keep their accounts?”

She said all her communications to X have gone unanswered.

Loomer was not the only right-wing account who reported having their blue verification badge revoked or their premium features disabled in the wake of the fight over H-B1 visas. NBC News reported that at least 14 conservative accounts faced similar actions last week.

Musk defended his decision to demonetize certain accounts on Wednesday, writing, “The first amendment is protection for ‘free speech’, not ‘paid speech’ ffs.”

What People Are Saying

Elon Musk, owner of X, said on December 26: “Just a reminder that the algorithm is trying to maximize unregretted user-seconds. If far more credible, verified subscriber accounts (not bots) mute/block your account compared to those who like your posts, your reach will decline significantly.”

Laura Loomer told Newsweek in response: “I just kind of want to know why they’re allowing for the Trump base to be completely censored. The Trump base is up in arms over this, and nobody’s doing anything to speak out about this egregious censorship.”

Kylie Jane Kremer, the executive director of Women for America First, said on X: “I can’t even mention @LauraLoomer without being penalized. Ten minutes after posting about her, almost all replies have been marked as spam. What is going on @elonmusk @lindayaX @premium @x ? This suppression of free speech. There is no other way to spin this.”

Leo Terrell, a conservative commentator, on X: “Attention @elonmusk! When will you reinstate @LauraLoomer? As a civil rights lawyer, I would like to know. Thank you! Leo 2.0 aka Trump Supporter!”

Nick Fuentes, a far-right white supremacist who also lost his X verification, wrote on the platform Tuesday: “”Twitter censorship is back. Free speech is dead.”

What’s Next

Loomer warned that Musk’s alleged retaliation against her “send a message to the Trump base that that they can be censored if they go against Elon.”

“I represent a lot of people, and I did a lot of work to help get President Trump elected, and now… [Musk] is getting carte blanche to go censor anybody,” she said. “A lot of people are very concerned about what this means.”

“Why would anybody want to use [X] for their payment services or for any other service when they’re able to just shut it off, and what does it say about the type of power that [Musk] has?” she added.

“If he could just shut your account off, could he shut your internet off with Starlink? Could he shut your [Tesla] off?”