Shaun King Deactivating Account Twitter Over Elon Musk Rumor Gets Debunked

Shaun King, Senior Justice Writer for the New York Daily News, speaks at Penn State Berks as part of their Arts and Lecture Series Wednesday evening November 15, 2017. King is a prominent voice in the Black Lives Matter movement. Photo by Ben Hasty

Source: MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images / Getty

Shaun King is a great many things to people, some of which might be considered unsavory depending on where one stands, but he never figured to be one to prematurely silence himself. After a conservative Trump stan and certified MAGA nutball shared that King deactivated his Twitter page, the rumor was swiftly debunked. This past Monday (April 25), conservative alt-right figure Jack Posobiec posted a tweet declaring that King deactivated his Twitter account, presumably due to Elon Musk’s pending purchase of the popular social media tool. “BREAKING: @ShaunKinghas deleted his Twitter account,” read the tweet.

With immediacy, the MAGA faithful chimed in with their unoriginal commentary and slander, using the nicknames that Black Twitter invented for the controversial activist. The delight of the responses was fueled by the rumors that King is actually not a Black man and is instead a white man in disguise. Much of this brouhaha is in response to a tweet King made earlier this week as news of Musk’s Twitter takeover and the South African businessman’s intentions to bring about a forum for free speech on the platform. “At its root, @ElonMusk wanting to purchase Twitter is not about left vs right. It’s about white power. The man was raised in Apartheid by a white nationalist,” King tweeted. “He’s upset that Twitter won’t allow white nationalists to target/ harass people. That’s his definition of free speech.” On Tuesday (April 26), King’s Twitter page was gone from the service, adding fuel to the slowly burning fire. As it stands, King’s Twitter account is very much active and he explained that the page went away because King thought he was hacked. In his profile byline, the tag “I’m Still Here Motherf*ckers” is a direct jab at those critics who thought he went quietly into the digital night. On Twitter, there’s a lot being said about Shaun King, Elon Musk, Twitter, whiteness, Blackness, and all things in between. We’ve got all the commentary and reactions below. — Photo: Getty