Social media account ban lifted for 'White Dudes for Harris'

A ban on the X account of a political group known as “White Dudes for Harris” was lifted Tuesday after the suspension sparked outcry and an organizer accused Elon Musk of being scared.

On Monday, “White Dudes for Harris” held an online fundraising rally in support of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Over 200,000 people joined the Zoom call, among them several Hollywood stars including Mark Ruffalo, Josh Gad, Sean Astin, Mark Hamill and Jeff Bridges, as reported by The Independent.

Harris last week announced she is running against former President Donald Trump after President Joe Biden said he would seek reelection.

In addition to the stars, several of the potential vice presidential running mates were on the call, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who announced he was withdrawing from consideration moments before the call began.

According to USA Today, Harris’ campaign said Sunday that it has raised $200 million in the past week. White Dudes for Harris organizer Ross Morales Rocketto posted Tuesday that the group raised an additional $4 million during the online rally.

The call took place over almost 3½ hours during which, according to NBC News, the organization sold more than 5,700 White Dudes for Harris trucker hats.

After the X account was suspended Tuesday morning, organizers quickly formed a backup account under the handle @dudesforharris.

Rocketto took to X, on his personal account, saying “Got @elonmusk scared.” Musk is the owner of the X social media platform.

The backup X account quickly gained over 20,000 followers before Tuesday morning when the original account became live again.

WE ARE SO BACK!

After a groundswell of grassroots complaints to @ElonMusk from the #WhiteDudesforHarris community, our account was reinstated & we're allowed to post again.

Thank you for coming to our aid & carrying on this conversation in our absence.

More to come! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/HMZgv9XTSE

— White Dudes for Harris (@dudes4harris) July 30, 2024

Mike Nellis, who is involved in the organization, shared that the account is “permanently in read-only mode.” This means that people cannot post or interact with the account as well as create new accounts, according to Newsweek.

Musk publicly endorsed Trump earlier this month and has since posted a doctored TikTok video of Harris on X with the words “this is unbelievable.”

Musk did not explicitly state that the video was doctored by artificial intelligence, which was used to impersonate Harris’ voice and used many of the same visuals as her actual campaign, according to The Associated Press.

The billionaire has also previously referred to himself as a “free speech absolutist,” as reported by The Independent.

Rocketto posted Tuesday that after the rally he received “hundreds of insults and memes from white supremacist bot accounts that are still active.”