Conservative Christian rapper Bryson Gray was permanently banned from Twitter after praising Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s takeover — and the rapper has no idea why.
Gray is not new to bans or controversy. His songs were removed from Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube in the last two years, specifically for “medical misinformation.”
“I think I got banned because I called Elton John gay, which would be weird for obvious reasons,” Gray said. “Elon Musk censors speech more than the old Twitter. That’s an objective truth that people look over because he allowed a few people back on Twitter,” the rapper continued.
Individual posts deemed hateful by Twitter’s content moderators can still be “shadow-banned,” deboosted, and demonetized under a new Twitter policy. The updated policy is “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach,” according to Musk. This means no ads or other revenue could be generated from negative/hate tweets. Even so, tweets are still there if you search for them.
Despite all his bans, Gray has topped Apple Music and charted on Billboard multiple times, most recently with his song “Burn Balenciaga.” The rapper said that Musk “openly brags about how ‘hate speech’ is down on Twitter due to his censorship. Of course, it’s hurtful to my brand to lose an account with over 250,000 followers, but God got me. Trust. Watch him work.”
New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.
Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter.
You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
There have been high expectations for Musk’s Twitter takeover to lessen the censorship that the former executives brought on. Musk got off to a good start when he reinstated popular Twitter accounts, including the Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson, and Kathy Griffin. But the platform does not appear to be moving forward with free speech.
Musk’s policies are different from what he envisioned in early 2022. In March, Musk called himself a “free speech absolutist” for not blocking Russian news sources with his company Starlink. But Twitter’s suspension of users for petty comments does not suggest enough progress toward the end of censorship.
