The Intercept published a story yesterday titled “Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk.” Like the article itself the headline is a bit vague on what is happening and why. What is clear is that over the past few days a bunch of well-known anti-fascist accounts have been suspended.

Several prominent antifascist organizers and journalists have had their accounts suspended in the past week, after right-wing operatives appealed directly to Musk to ban them and far-right internet trolls flooded Twitter’s complaints system with false reports about terms of service violations.

As the Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin noted on Twitter, the suspended users include Chad Loder, an antifascist researcher whose open-source investigation of the U.S. Capitol riot led to the identification and arrest of a masked Proud Boy who attacked police officers. The account of video journalist Vishal Pratap Singh, who reports on far-right protests in Southern California, has also been suspended.

Among the other prominent accounts suspended were the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, an antifascist group that provides armed security for LGBTQ+ events in North Texas, and CrimethInc, an anarchist collective that has published and distributed anarchist and anti-authoritarian zines, books, posters, and podcasts since the mid-1990s.

All four accounts had been singled out for criticism by Andy Ngo, a far-right writer whose conspiratorial, error-riddled reporting on left-wing protests and social movements fuels the mass delusion that a handful of small antifascist groups are part of an imaginary shadow army called “antifa.” In a public exchange on Twitter on Friday, Musk invited Ngo to report “Antifa accounts” that should be suspended directly to him.

Here’s the exchange between Ngo and Musk:

Incitement to violence will result in account suspension

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022

That is a disturbing story and very concerning that Twitter took no action, despite clear violation of ToS. Report in this thread for now.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022

And Ngo proceeded to do so, starting with @crimethinc, one of the accounts that has now been suspended.

A year ago, @/crimethinc raised tens of thousands on @GoFundMe via promotion on Twitter. The organizer of that campaign was Shane Becker, a violent extremist who calls for arson attacks & fantasizes about killing people. He instructed comrades to use human body shields at riots. pic.twitter.com/hWYWWtPET4

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 25, 2022

Hours later the account had been suspended and Ngo started noticing calls for revenge attacks on Tesla:

As revenge for @elonmusk suspending violent extremist accounts on Twitter, #Antifa in Portland are organizing arson attacks on @Tesla locations tonight.

This is just a drop in the ocean of years of violent organizing on Twitter. https://t.co/UXTWORonjJ https://t.co/n8B5Z4K08C pic.twitter.com/GrWjwdLqPV

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 25, 2022

Coincidentally…

Earlier tonight next to the @Tesla dealership in Lynnwood, WA, a suspect threatened police with a crowbar & said he would blow up the building. He then started a fire next to propane tanks. No confirmed motive for attack but #Antifa had urged arson attacks on Tesla the same day. pic.twitter.com/SpJnqMsVBj

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 26, 2022

And some antifa accounts were upset that a call to action had publicly preceded the attacks (2nd tweet below).

Some of the Portland #Antifa accounts involved in violent extremism are unhappy the call for burning down @Tesla locations as revenge against @elonmusk was announced prematurely on Twitter. Portland Antifa member @dennisispeasant says the attacks should be done discreetly. pic.twitter.com/tMU5SLWPtA

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 29, 2022

Again, a motive hasn’t been confirmed yet but the timing seems suspicious.

Some of the banned accounts have since moved over to Mastodon and started posting there instead. But the Intercept’s description of why some of these accounts were suspended is written in such a way that, unless you follow the links, you don’t ever see what these accounts were actually posting. For instance, Vishal Pratap Singh’s suspension is described this way:

Days before Singh’s account was suspended, Ngo had posted screenshots of some of the journalist’s angry tweets along with this misleading, factually incorrect summary: “Vishal Singh, an #Antifa far-left violent extremist in Los Angeles who identifies as a journalist, is calling for deadly violence again.” Singh is a left-wing journalist but did not call for violence in the tweets shared by Ngo, and is not violent.

But What Singh actually wrote seems a lot closer to the line: “Liberals who appease transphobes have gone too far. That’s it. We’re done. We’re fighting back. It will be militant. You will not genocide us into the night. You want a war? You’ve got it.” And also, his comments to LibsofTikTok: “Shut the f**k up you terrorist Nazi f**ker. You will live in fear for the rest of your life.” Sorry, but I don’t think he’s speaking metaphorically here in either case.

Vishal Singh, an #Antifa far-left violent extremist in Los Angeles who identifies as a journalist, is calling for deadly violence again. He has declared war on Republicans & repeatedly threatens @libsoftiktok. Singh was invited by @aaja to speak at their conference this year. pic.twitter.com/HGYkcncZ02

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 21, 2022

There’s more which again you’ll only see if you follow the links. The Intercept claims “Last year, after Singh was attacked twice by far-right anti-vaccine protesters and lashed out in self-defense, Ngo posted a misleadingly captioned video and falsely accused Singh of being the aggressor.” In fact, that’s not what the linked tweet says. It shows Singh taking a swing at someone and then getting punched in the face.

Violent extremist Vishal Singh (person with long hair) has been invited to speak on a panel by the Asian American Journalists Association. I'm a member of this group & I'm shocked the organizers invited a battery arrestee who calls for violence against journalists. cc: @myhlee https://t.co/AkgK8i14z3 pic.twitter.com/YSrXftjAmh

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 19, 2022

As you can see, Andy Ngo refers to him as a “battery arrestee” which is accurate according to a link the Intercept posted.

Singh told freelance journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel in an interview that half-way through the line up, a deputy came into the room and placed him under arrest. He was held in custody for approximately 4 hours and ultimately charged with two counts of assault and battery, one of which was connected to the incident at Harlowe.

Suffice it to say the Intercept’s description of Singh’s activities and Andy Ngo’s coverage seems a bit selective and slanted respectively. Singh certainly seems to celebrate violence against his opponents.

Vishal Singh called for people to assault Latino videographer @DrewHLive for his video coverage of a public pride event. @aaja, are you aware he tries to impede the first amendment activities of other journalists & lies about them to incite violence? pic.twitter.com/sX5q64aFAW

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 20, 2022

I support free speech but there is a line to be drawn at incitement and planning violence and that’s clearly part of what these anti-fascist accounts are about. But I doubt this is the end of this story. We’ll have to wait and see how they respond. My guess is with more violence.