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Here’s a heartwarming story that should bring you joy this holiday season: the worst people you know are all fighting. The MAGA v. Tech Right feud that kicked off over Christmas, spurred by a divide on allowing skilled immigrant workers to come stateside, was escalated by Elon Musk on Thursday. Trump’s “first buddy” declared far-right characters including former Trump orbiter Laura Loomer to be trolls and allegedly removed their verification status on Twitter.
Musk spent most of yesterday amplifying support for H-1B visa programs, which allow American companies to hire noncitizens for specialty occupations and have become a favorite tool in the tech industry to attract global talent. He also did it in the most 4chan-ish way possible, responding in agreement to a post from Autism Capital that posited the tech industry doesn’t hire Americans because “you guys are retarded.”
© Screenshot Gizmodo That put him in the crosshairs of the nationalist right, which backed Trump in large part due to his promise to limit immigration. Figures like Loomer, InfoWars host Owen Shroyer, and others took shots at Musk and other tec-right figures like Vivek Ramaswamy for their narrow pro-immigration position. As Musk backed away from the conversation, chalking it up primarily to trolling, his biggest critics also saw their blue checkmarks removed from their profiles.
Loomer, Shroyer, Newsmax contributor Gavin Wax, and political action committee ConservativeOG all lost their verification in the fallout of the H-1B visa battle after explicitly standing in opposition to Musk and friends. The de-verification won’t just cost them the check mark, but also the payouts from their attention-seeking posts and any income they were generating from premium subscribers who backed them.
BREAKING:
🚨🚨🚨@elonmusk has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China.
Looks like Elon Musk is going to be silencing me… pic.twitter.com/6hvTGCEZHw
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 27, 2024
These accounts likely lost their verification status because of their association with ConservativeOG. One way to receive verification on Twitter is via affiliation with a verified organization, which ConservativeOG previously was, as seen by the gold checkmark that was once displayed on its profile. At some point, ConservativeOG got axed, and so did everyone associated with it. Loomer and ConservativeOG have ties, as seen on an archived version of Loomer’s account that shows the ConservativeOG logo next to her verification badge. It’s unclear if Loomer’s actions cost the whole organization its verification status.
Loomer is currently sitting in Twitter Jail, suspended for 12 hours over a post in which she falsely accused Sriram Krishnan, Trump’s incoming senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence, of donating to the Kamala Harris presidential candidacy.
It’s worth noting that the checkmark purge appears to reach beyond just those directly engaged in the H-1B visa debate. The account RawAlerts, which posts pretty much exclusively clickbait and drama-farming content, also lost its verification, and a number of other users have raised concerns that their verification status is under review without explanation as to why.
In the middle of the whole immigration kerfuffle, Musk announced a tweak to the Twitter algorithm that would drop in rank posts from users who are blocked or muted by “credible, verified subscriber accounts“—a move that Loomer interpreted as an attack on her because nothing has ever happened that isn’t about her. But it’s possible the review of verification badges is related to the algorithm adjustment.
Regardless, it appears that Musk’s goodwill with MAGA loyalists is running low. It’s clear Musk and other techies who decided to cling to Trump are trying to turn the page and leave the H-1B debate behind, potentially going so far as to try to bury the accounts leading the opposition. But the far-right has only dug its heels in further following the shady de-verification move and seems intent on continuing the fight. May they all lose.
