FACT CHECK: Did Elon Musk Ban The X Account Of The Armed Forces Of Ukraine?

A post shared on Threads claims X own­er Elon Musk banned the X account of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

View on Threads

Ver­dict: False

The account pic­tured in the screen­shot is an imper­son­ation. The account for Ukraine’s Min­istry of Defense is still up and bears a gray check­mark to sig­ni­fy its authen­tic­i­ty.

Fact Check: 

Ukraine is look­ing to change its law sur­round­ing con­script­ing women in the war against Rus­sia, though some dis­agree with the change, accord­ing to Newsweek. The country’s cur­rent law allows men over 25 to be draft­ed and doesn’t enlist women, but Dec. 3 bill would allow women to reg­is­ter as con­scripts, the out­let report­ed.

A Threads post claims the Armed Forces of Ukraine account was sus­pend­ed from X. The post shows a screen­shot of an X account with the title “Armed Forces of Ukraine” and the han­dle @Inside_the_AFU, which appears to have had 525,000 fol­low­ers. Text indi­cates the account was sus­pend­ed for vio­lat­ing the platform’s rules.

“BREAKING: Russ­ian asset Elon Musk just banned the X account of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the post reads.

The claim is inac­cu­rate, how­ev­er. The Ukraine Min­istry of Defense account, @DefenceU, has a gray check­mark to show it is the offi­cial account. In con­trast, the account seen in the screen­shot has a blue check­mark, so it could not have been the gen­uine account. (RELATED: Did Ukraine Fire U.S.-Made Mis­siles Against Civil­ians In Rus­sia?)

The post appears to orig­i­nate from an X account called @Bricktop_NAFO. This is a meme account, accord­ing to its bio.

🚨🚨🚨Every­one needs to know🚨🚨🚨@X has sus­pend­ed the Offi­cial account for The Armed Forces Of Ukraine. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/NQwdvEnuCb

— Bricktop_NAFO (@Bricktop_NAFO) Decem­ber 4, 2024

Check Your Fact reached out to spokes­peo­ple for X and the Ukraine Min­istry of Defense for com­ment.