NFT Artist Sues X to Restore His Access to His 7 Suspended User Accounts

Despite X’s “announced commitment” to defending and respecting the user’s voice as one of its core values, it has “repeatedly engaged in behavior contrary to this core value,” to plaintiff Jeremy Ryan's detriment, alleged Ryan's complaint Wednesday (docket 3:24-cv-03553) in U.S. District Court for Northern California. The California resident alleges X suspended his user accounts for no reason and for no apparent violation of the platform’s content moderation terms and rules. Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it X, he and the company have “engaged in repeated behavior that illustrated conflicting approaches to content moderation and a general lack of a cohesive policy on content moderation,” said the complaint. In a further illustration of X’s “laissez-faire stance” on content moderation, the company announced June 3 that the platform “would officially allow pornographic content,” but block adult and violent posts from being viewable by users under 18 or those who don’t opt in to see them, said the complaint. But while X announced that policy update on June 3, as of June 10, its terms “continue to include pornography as a category for which a user account may be reported and subsequently suspended,” it said. X has repeatedly demonstrated that although its terms contain an official policy for the suspension and appeal of accounts, “corporate policy and practice often contradicts that and there is yet to be a cohesive and consistent content moderation policy,” said the complaint. X’s “haphazard and arbitrarily enforced policies and practices” have led to the harm against the plaintiff, it said. Ryan channeled his newfound interest and skill in art into a “passion” for creating non-fungible tokens, it said. Though Ryan became the largest NFT artist on the Binance Smart Chain in terms of minted NFTs, X inexplicably suspended his seven accounts without “proper explanation or justifiable reason given,” said the complaint. The plaintiff’s suspension from the X platform “has severely damaged his cryptocurrency and NFT business, including his upcoming NFT projects,” it said. As more time passes without access to his accounts and ability to promote his upcoming NFT projects or generate momentum, “he continues to lose any prospective financial advantage or profits he had earned and was projected to earn while active on the X platform,” it said. Ryan didn’t violate X’s terms, policies or rules, said his complaint. Due to X’s “inconsistent and arbitrary” content moderation policies, "haphazard" suspension of legitimate accounts that have engaged in no abusive or spam-like behavior, and refusal to provide any clarity, Ryan “has lost his predominant source of income and livelihood,” it said. His eight-count complaint seeks compensatory damages, plus a grant of injunctive relief to restore his access to his X user accounts and prevent X from suspending them again in the future.