The X account (formerly Twitter) of a prominent American professor has been suspended without explanation. The professor believes this is an act of retaliation by Elon Musk after he declined a meeting with him.

Over the weekend, Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University (USA), gave an interview to The New York Times in which he criticized Elon Musk’s management of X (formerly Twitter), saying the billionaire had turned the social media platform into chaos.

Two days later, Galloway’s X account—followed by over 564,000 users—was abruptly suspended for 17 days without any clear reason.

Galloway’s X account (right) was reportedly locked due to his repeated criticism of billionaire Elon Musk (Illustrative Image: Teslarati).

Posting on his personal Threads page (a social media platform founded by Mark Zuckerberg with an interface similar to X), Professor Galloway expressed outrage, claiming his X account was suspended as an act of revenge by Musk.

“Elon Musk seemed to take offense to my interview, and requested a meeting to talk, which I declined. Two days later, my X account was locked for 17 days with no specific reason given,” Galloway wrote on Threads.

Galloway believes Musk was upset by his frequent criticism of the billionaire in the media and press.

Back in October of last year, after Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter, Galloway publicly stated that the deal would be a failure and that Musk was “completely unfit to manage Twitter.”

In a recent post on X, Galloway mocked Musk’s management style, saying the platform had descended into chaos under the leadership of “a car salesman.”

Musk himself has previously lost his temper over Galloway’s criticisms, once calling the professor “an insufferable moron” and sarcastically suggesting that Galloway give him investment advice—so he could do the exact opposite.

Although Musk publicly champions “free speech,” he has often taken retaliatory action against individuals who displease him.

In addition to Galloway’s account suspension, Musk has previously been accused of using “tactics” to slow down access to rival platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram) or websites he dislikes—including Reuters and The New York Times—when users attempt to share links to those sites on X.