Elon Musk agrees with a tweet saying Americans aren’t smart enough for tech jobs

Here’s a touching story that should bring you joy this holiday season: The worst people you know all fight. the MAGA vs. technology right dispute That began over Christmas, driven by division over whether to allow skilled migrant workers to come to the United States, was escalated by Elon Musk on Thursday. Trump’s “number one friend” declared far-right figures, including former Trump probe Laura Loomer, to be trolls and allegedly removed their verified status on Twitter.

Musk spent much of yesterday hyping support for H-1B visa programs, which allow U.S. companies to hire noncitizens in specialized professions and have become a favored tool in the tech industry for attracting global talent. He also did it in the most convenient way possible, Reply with agreement To A Post from Autism Capital Which assumes that the tech industry doesn’t employ Americans because “You guys are retarded.“

This put him in the crosshairs of the nationalist right, which supported Trump largely because of his promise to limit immigration. Numbers like Loomhost of InfoWars Owen ShroyerOthers attacked Musk and other right-wing tech figures like Vivek Ramaswamy for their narrow pro-immigration stance. When Musk backed away from the conversation, attributing it primarily to trolling, he also saw his biggest critics remove the blue check marks from their profiles.

Loom, ShroyerNewsmax contributor Gavin WaxAnd the Political Action Committee GovernorOG They all lost their verification in the fallout from the H-1B visa battle after standing out in opposition to Musk and his friends. Not only will deverification cost them the checkmark, but it will also cost them revenue from their attention-seeking posts and any income they were generating from it Premium subscribers who supported them.

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🚨🚨🚨@elonmusk He removed the blue check mark from the X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, replacing American tech workers with Indian immigrants, and questioned his relationship with China.

Looks like Elon Musk is going to silence me… pic.twitter.com/6hvTGCEZHw

-Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 27, 2024

These accounts may have lost their verified status due to their association with ConservativeOG. One way to get verified on Twitter is to join a verified organization, which was formerly ConservativeOG, he says The golden check mark that was once displayed on his profile. At some point, ConservativeOG was taken down, and so was everyone associated with it. Loom and ConservativeOG have relationships, as seen in Archived copy of Loomer’s account Which shows the ConservativeOG logo next to its verification badge. It’s not clear whether Loomer’s actions cost the entire organization its verified status.

Loomer is currently in Twitter jail, He was suspended for 12 hours due to a post In which she falsely accused Sriram Krishnan, Trump’s senior political AI advisor, of donating to Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.

It should be noted that the check mark purge appears to extend beyond just those directly involved in the H-1B visa debate. RawAlerts account, which posts almost exclusively clickbait content and drama content as well Lost verificationand A number to last Users have raised concerns that their verification status is being reviewed without explaining why.

In the middle of the whole immigration crisis, Musk. Announce A tweak to the Twitter algorithm would result in posts from users who have been blocked or muted by “downgrading”Trusted and verified subscriber accounts“—a move that Loomer interpreted as Attack on her Because nothing ever happened that wasn’t about her. But it is possible that the revision of verification badges is related to an algorithm modification.

Regardless, Musk’s goodwill with MAGA loyalists appears to be declining. Musk and other techies who have decided to stick with Trump are clearly trying to turn the page and leave the H-1B debate behind, likely going so far as to try to bury the calculations driving the opposition. But the far right has only grown more steadfast in the wake of the dubious move to revoke verification, and appears determined to keep up the fight. May they all lose.