President Joe Biden’s decision on Sunday to drop out of the 2024 race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris set off a flurry of posts and panic regarding the new state of the presidential race.
One particularly indefatigable conservative poster concerned by Biden’s move was X CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted 151 times on Sunday, his most ever.
“Trump/Vance LFG!!” Musk repeatedly shared.
Musk’s super-active day, which included 346 likes, more than he’s ever dropped before, had people speculating that Musk is panicking now that a younger candidate will be facing off against former President Donald Trump in the election this November.
“They are worried that Harris is going to be more difficult to beat,” posted u/throwaway_12358134 in an r/EnoughMuskSpam discussion of the posting data. “The GOP put its entire campaign strategy into personally attacking Biden and they are intentionally hiding their platform because they know it’s wildly unpopular and just can’t compete with Bidens economic and foreign policies.”
Some posters on X also suspected that panic was leading Musk to suppress Harris’ official rapid response account, saying they couldn’t follow the accounts when they tried.
“1st time this happened…I can’t follow an account for @vp @kamalaHQ because my ‘limit’ is reached…I am currently following roughly 2500 accounts… super shady – time seems real coincidental This doesn’t match the ‘x’ follow limits. Can anyone @x explain…” posted @megdoyle over a screenshot of the problem.
The screenshot shows an overlay popping up when attempting to follow the account. “Limit reached,” the window reads. “You are unable to follow more people at this time.”
The Daily Dot wasn’t able to reproduce the issue on Monday afternoon, and the @KamalaHQ account doesn’t appear to have any other obstacles to following it.
Despite a “limit reached” message, people who received it posted that it was unlikely they had reached the limit. Some said that they hadn’t followed anybody recently.
“Hey @X want to explain yourself?” commented @camrenee13. “I’ve followed 0 accounts today but for some reason I can’t follow an official Kamala Harris campaign account? Shady af.”
“Haven’t followed a new person in weeks, yet I’ve reached my limit? Keep being transparent as fuck, Space Karen,” posted @SourceRyan.
X has a technical limit of 400 new follows per day, according to a Help Center laying out platform guidelines. But the page says the actual limit for individual users can be lower, based on “additional rules prohibiting aggressive following behavior.”
“Is X blocking people from following a presidential candidate’s account? I follow 653 people and have been on Twitter for 14 years,” posted @Gaurav_Keswani. “I don’t believe I’ve reached any limit.”
X has mistakenly restricted accounts that have exploded in popularity, as Harris’ did last night and today. In February, X briefly suspended an account for deceased Russian dissident Alexei Navalny’s wife after it racked up followers
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