Thread by @stevanzetti

NEW: X has become a hotbed of neo-Nazi content under Elon Musk. We identified the operators of four anonymous accounts that share racist, antisemitic, and neo-Nazi content. Three live in Texas. Musk has replied to two of them. One works for the Navy.

texasobserver.org/revealed-opera…

Through reviewing posts on X, web archives, leak databases, and other social media profiles, we identified the following individuals as the anonymous operators of neo-Nazi X accounts, which had a collective 500,000 followers at their peak. Their posts get millions of views.

The rise to prominence of accounts promoting neo-Nazi content tracks with a dramatic decrease in moderation of hateful content on the platform, which dropped from 1 million moderated accounts in 2021 to only 2,361 accounts in the most recent 2024 X transparency report.

These accounts have drawn the attention of conservatives. The X account belonging to Republican U.S. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky follows three of the four neo-Nazi accounts, while the account belonging to GOP Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers follows two.

In October 2022, Musk committed in another post on X to ensuring “negative/hate tweets” would be “deboosted and demonetized” and not generate revenue for the social media platform. We found advertisements in the replies to posts from all four accounts, including pro-Nazi posts.

The people who we identified as the operators of the anonymous accounts include a marketing professional, a former aerospace company employee, a current employee at JP Morgan Chase, and employee at a Naval installation where the Navy manufacturers explosive ordnance.

To learn how we identified the operators of these accounts, read the article in full. And if you appreciate the work, consider becoming a subscriber or donor to the Texas Observer.

texasobserver.org/revealed-opera…