I am Bassem Youssef.

Gulf Today report

Egyptian-American comedian and TV presenter Bassem Youssef is in crisis after his account was deleted from the social media platform “X” after he posted several messages containing support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. Then a fake account appeared under his name accusing the owner of the famous platform, billionaire Elon Musk.

How did the crisis come about?

First, Bassem Youssef published a series of tweets on his account, which is followed by more than 11 million people, criticizing Israel and Zionism and saying that the term “anti-Semitism” should prevent people from criticizing Israel.

Apparently, the satirical media star took advantage of the fact that the platform “X”, owned by US billionaire Elon Musk, is one of the largest social networks where the publication of opinions critical of Israel is allowed, while “Facebook” and “Instagram” have introduced 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 time, a new account appeared under the name Bassem Youssef, who started several abusive tweets after the original account was closed and made it clear that he would not refrain from suing Musk after his account was closed.

He later stated that “Musk became a completely different person after his visit to Israel a few months ago.” As it eventually turned out, this account was fake and had nothing to do with the satirical media figure.

Comment by Bassem Youssef

In his first comment after his account disappeared, Bassem Youssef wrote a post on his Instagram account on Tuesday announcing the deletion of his account and saying 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 come back. I am on Instagram and Facebook and any other account on ‘X’ claiming to be me is fake. I do not wish to make any statements or press interviews on this matter at this time.”