NFT artist sues X for suspending account, wrecking business

Binance Smart Chain’s ‘biggest’ NFT artist is suing Elon Musk’s X Corp after the social media giant suspended his accounts, allegedly ignoring its own policy and costing him his livelihood.

Jeremy Ryan, aka ‘NFT Demon,’ filed a lawsuit in California on Wednesday in which he accuses X (formerly Twitter) of unfairly suspending his seven accounts and ‘severely’ damaging his crypto and NFT businesses.

Ryan, who became an NFT artist after surviving brain cancer, says his record of minted art makes him the largest NFT artist on the Binance Smart Chain. His work has attracted support from numerous celebrities including John Cena and Snoop Dogg.

However, he argues that being cut off from his accounts means he has “lost his predominant source of income and livelihood,” and that he is losing future profits that could be made if he was still active on X promoting his NFT work.

Screenshots taken of NFT Demon’s art, which mostly resemble other NFT projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks

The lawsuit calls X’s content moderation policies “inconsistent and arbitrary” and claims that his suspension was “without any proper explanation or justifiable reason.” Ryan submitted 13 appeals for his NFT Demon account without receiving a response from X.

The suit reads, “X has a pattern of unexpectedly suspending cryptocurrency and NFT-related accounts with no explanation and some of these accounts are coins that Mr. Musk has personally purported to take an interest.”

The lawsuit also details a long list of free speech statements from Musk before arguing that the CEO and his platform repeatedly go against their official policy on content moderation.

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“Despite the platform’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 the detriment of Plaintiff Jeremy Ryan,” the lawsuit reads.

Overall Ryan has made eight legal claims against X Corp, including breach of contract, unjust enrichment, promissory fraud, false advertising, and unfair business practices. NFT Demon is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 and a trial by jury.