When Shashi Tharoor Approached Elon Musk Suspecting ‘Shadow Ban’ On X, Here’s What Followed

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor revealed that he reached out to X chief Elon Musk about a stagnant follower count suspecting a 'show ban'.

File Photo of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and X chief Elon Musk

Source : PTI

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday revealed that he once wrote to 'X' boss Elon Musk regarding a drop in his follower count on the social media platform, but instead of a resolution, he received a response from Musk's legal team, firmly denying any issues. The Thiruvananthapuram MP who is an active user of the X platform, formerly Twitter, shared that numerous users had flagged his stagnant follower count to him, which had ultimately compelled him to address the matter publicly.

Responding to a user’s query about why his follower count had remained at 8.4 million for several years despite his wide appeal, Tharoor explained: "Good question. This has been the case for four years! A source at the old Twitter India told me there was a problem he couldn't understand: he had reviewed my daily statistics over six months, and found a strange pattern - my followers went up by over 1000 a day, about 60 - 70 'unfollowed' me each day, but my overall followers total wouldn't budge above 8.495 million."

Good question. This has been the case for four years! A source at the old Twitter India told me there was a problem he couldn’t understand: he had reviewed my daily statistics over six months, and found a strange pattern — my followers went up by over 1000 a day, about 60 - 70… https://t.co/IpfTJpMvwt

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 17, 2024

Tharoor added that his source at Twitter India suspected an algorithm glitch. "Since my account is never 'suggested' for anyone to follow, and many of my followers complain about not receiving most of my posts on their timeline, I wondered if I had been 'shadow-banned'. (My source has since left @X)," he wrote.

Elon Musk's Legal Team Responded To Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP Says 'Followers Count Now Drops Unsteadily Each Day'

The Congress leader stated that after observing the problem for three years, he reached out to Elon Musk directly but received a response from a lawyer instead. "...received a lawyer's letter in return - flatly denying there was a problem! So much for corporate responsiveness...," he remarked.

He also pointed out that, ironically, his follower count has been declining since his inquiry. "The only practical consequence of my inquiry is that my followers count now drops unsteadily each day - from the peak of 8.495m to 8.429m today. There is clearly something wrong that the people in charge of @XCorpIndia don't care about. But more and more people have been noticing and asking me, so I have finally decided to go public about it," he wrote.

Acknowledging that stagnant follower counts may seem trivial compared to pressing public matters, Tharoor said: "But whether it is deliberate or accidental, I hope those asking understand that there is a problem. Perhaps laying it out here might get the attention of someone responsible at @XCorpIndia - but I am not holding my breath."