Tucker Carlson appears to mislead Fox News viewers after claiming Elon Musk restored his Twitter account

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has insinuated that Elon Musk has restored his Twitter account after being suspended from the social media platform.

On Monday, it was confirmed that controversial billionaire Musk has reached a deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion – news that has delighted many right-wing figures.

Following the back and forth negotiations, the deal is expected to go through later this year, when Musk will officially take control.

Conservative figures have welcomed the deal because of Musk’s advocacy of free speech, with many seeing it as a turning point away from liberalism in media.

On 23 March, Carlson was suspended from Twitter for referring to Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, a trans woman, as a man.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Carlson had been suspended ever since for refusing to delete the tweet. But, after a month-long hiatus on Twitter, his account was back up and running before his show on Monday 25 April.

During his Tucker Carlson Tonight show, a chyron appeared at the bottom of the screen reading: “UNSHACKLED BY ELON MUSK: FREE SPEECH RESTORED; @TUCKERCARLSON BACK ON TWITTER.”

While the chyron gives the impression that Carlson was back on Twitter because Musk had “unshackled” him, it is impossible as Musk is not yet in control of the platform.

Fox News

Not only that, but the tweet about Levine no longer appears on Carlson’s account, suggesting he himself deleted it in order to regain access to his account.

In the tweet that saw him suspended, Carlson reposted two transphobic posts from other Twitter accounts that intentionally misgendered Levine as male and wrote, “But wait. Both these tweets are true”.

At the time, a Fox spokesperson allegedly confirmed that Carlson would never delete the tweet.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.