A host of social media users' problems with following Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign account on X, formerly Twitter, sparked questions directed at the platform's owner, Elon Musk.
President Joe Biden announced on Sunday in a statement posted on social media that he would not be seeking reelection in the 2024 presidential race, following weeks of pressure from within his own party and from key Democratic donors to step down amid concerns over his age and mental acuity.
In a follow-up post, Biden endorsed Harris to succeed him as the nominee, writing: "My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it's been the best decision I've made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats—it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."
Hours later, Harris said in a statement of her own that she was "honored to have the President's endorsement." She continued: "My intention is to earn and win this nomination. Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead."
"I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda. We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win," she concluded.
However, a number of X users took to the platform to complain that they were unable to follow the @KamalaHQ account, which has been described as "the official rapid response page of Vice President Harris' presidential campaign."
The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as a Trump aide, but has since turned against the former president, was among those to share that she was having issues with following the account.
Sharing a screenshot of a notification she had received from the platform, Griffin wrote: "Tried to follow the @KamalaHQ account & X gave me the below message & blocked me from following: Bizarre. I follow under 1,000 people."
"Hearing from a bunch of other folks this is happening to. What's up, @X?" Griffin said in a follow-up post, before sharing an update stating that "after my posts, I now can follow the account I was previously told I could not follow. Bizarre."
Sharing a similar screenshot, another X user wrote: "Not to go full E**n M**k conspiracy but I can follow any account except @kamalahq."
There has been no evidence of any interference by Musk, and Newsweek has contacted representatives of X via email for comment.
Posting a screen recording, another said that they were "being prevented from following @KamalaHQ. Says I can't follow anymore but then I can follow other accounts. Is this typical Twitter incompetence or intentional sabotage by Elon Musk?"
"The way the man who runs this site is actively preventing people from a) finding and b) following @kamalahq is wild," read another comment on the issue.
Journalist David Leavitt also shared that he had the same issue, commenting: "Twitter is preventing users from following the Kamala Harris @KamalaHQ account. It's almost as if @elonmusk is engaging in election interference... Ironically, it's the top news story by the twitter AI Grok in the 'for you' tab."
Leavitt shared a screenshot of the summary by Grok, a product of Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, that had the headline: "X Users Blocked from Following Kamala Harris."
"Multiple users on X reported encountering an error message when attempting to follow the official account of Vice President Kamala harris' presidential campaign, @KamalaHQ.," read the Grok item.
"Users noted that they were able to follow other accounts without issue, suggesting a specific restriction on following @KamalaHQ. Some users speculated that this limitation might be intentionally imposed by Elon Musk, the owner of X, possibly due to the rapid influx of new followers to the account."
Musk, who interacted with a number of X posts mocking and criticizing Harris while expressing support for Trump on Sunday, did not appear to address the issue, which many X users shared had been subsequently resolved.
He did, however, share that the @BidenHQ X account had been taken down, following the president's announcement that he was quitting his reelection efforts. The billionaire businessman, who acquired X in 2022, wrote, "Sure did," alongside a screenshot that showed the account could no longer be found.
Musk also shared that there had been other issues on X, where a number of "good accounts were unfortunately caught in a reply spam net." As of press time, that particular issue appeared to have been resolved.
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