Bassem Youssef.

Gulf Today Report

Egyptian-American comedian and television host Bassem Youssef is facing a crisis after his account was deleted from the social media platform "X," after he posted several messages that included support for Palestine and criticism of Israel, and then a fake account appeared bearing his name, accusing the owner of the famous platform, billionaire Elon Musk.

How did the crisis start?

At first, Bassem Youssef posted a series of tweets through his account, which is followed by more than 11 million people, in which he criticised Israel and Zionism, and said the term "anti-Semitism" was meant to scare people from criticising Israel.

It seems that the satirical media personality took advantage of the fact that the "X" platform, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, is one of the largest social media sites that allowed the publication of opinions critical of Israel, while "Facebook" and "Instagram" imposed stricter restrictions to combat what they called "hatred and incitement to violence."

Disappearance and forgery

Bassem Youssef's account on "X" quickly disappeared after these tweets, and the message "This account does not exist" appeared. Within a short period, a new account appeared under the name of Bassem Youssef, which launched several offensive tweets after the original account was closed, and made it clear that he would not back down from suing Musk after his account was closed.

He later indicated that "Musk became a completely different person after his visit to Israel several months ago." It was eventually revealed that this account was fake and had nothing to do with the satirical media figure.

Bassem Youssef's comment

In his first comment after his account disappeared, Bassem Youssef wrote a post on his Instagram account on Tuesday, in which he announced the deletion of his account, and that he did not know when he would return to "X", or if he would return at all.

He added: "I am not sure if or when my account on "X" will return. I am on Instagram and Facebook, and any other account on "X" claiming to be me is fake. I do not wish to issue any statements or press interviews about this matter now."