I still remember the day when Will Byrk dropped "superknowledge" on Twitter. A vision of search that would transform how we access information—democratizing knowledge in ways we've only dreamed of. You won't be seeing a post like that again. Because Will Byrk's personal Twitter is gone.

As far as I know, banning personal accounts for a company's product decisions is unprecedented. This isn't just about API terms—it's about who controls the flow of information in our society.

I had no idea (until today) that Will's superknowledge post had also been published to the Exa blog. This is why reach matters. This is why platforms matter. This is why freedom matters.

I've known Will and Jeff for years, and Alex built Metaphor (which renamed to Exa) out of my house. These aren't just tech founders—they're people with dreams, families, and lives beyond their company. Will posts about Jeff's workout regimen. Just yesterday impeccable 'dream of my life' vibes hit the timeline as Will toured his office in awe of his opportunity. They're real humans building something they believe in.

And now their personal voices have been silenced because of a business decision. Their crime? Building an AI search tool that could access public information—the same public information any human could see by simply visiting Twitter.

The message is clear: cross the platform, and we won't just target your product—we'll come for you personally.

Twitter/X has positioned itself as the modern public square. A place where ideas are exchanged, where news breaks, where the world happens in real-time. But what happens when the owner of the square decides who can speak and who must remain silent?

Exa's sin was creating a tool that could read this public square efficiently. Their documentation was transparent about what they were doing:

"Retrieve Twitter/X posts in real-time with Exa's MCP X API, bypassing rate limits and providing comprehensive access to public content."

Is this really so different from what thousands of journalists, researchers, and curious citizens do every day? The only difference is scale and efficiency—and apparently, that efficiency threatened someone's control.

There's a profound irony in a platform that champions "free speech" silencing individuals for building tools that access public information. This isn't about API terms—it's about power.

If AI agents can't access the same public information humans can, we're creating a two-tiered information ecosystem. One for flesh-and-blood humans, and a sanitized, controlled version for our AI tools. Is that the future we want?

The suspension of Will, Jeff, and Ishan's accounts sends a chilling message to every founder, developer, and innovator: Stay in your lane. Don't challenge the giants. Don't democratize what we've monopolized.

In some authoritarian regimes, they practice "three-generation punishment"—where not just the offender, but their family for three generations can be punished for crimes against the state.

What we're seeing here feels disturbingly similar. Not content with blocking Exa's product, Twitter has taken the extraordinary step of personally cancelling the employees—erasing years of connections, conversations, and personal history.

This isn't business. This is vindictive. This is personal.

And it should terrify every founder building in this space. Today it's Exa. Tomorrow it could be you—not just your product, but you personally, erased from the digital public square for daring to innovate in the wrong direction.

The tech community's reaction to this heavy-handed approach was swift and unequivocal:

When even supporters of the platform are questioning the ethics of such actions, it's clear that a line has been crossed.

What's remarkable about this incident is how it has united voices across the spectrum. Even Elon Musk's most ardent supporters—those who have championed his takeover of Twitter and defended his "free speech absolutism"—find themselves unable to justify this action.

When you've lost your true believers, you know you've gone too far.

These founders weren't banned for what they said or did on their personal accounts. They were excommunicated for their business activities—a punishment that strikes at the heart of both free speech and free market principles that Musk's supporters hold dear.

Twitter search has been notoriously broken for years. Anyone who's ever tried to find a specific tweet knows the frustration—it's like searching for a needle in a digital haystack where the search tool itself is made of hay.

Remember when George Hotz boldly declared his mission to fix Twitter search? That brief glimmer of hope that someone—anyone—might finally solve this persistent problem? The internet cheered. Users were desperate for a solution.

And then... nothing changed. The problem persisted. Until Exa came along.

Exa wasn't just building a better search engine—they were doing what Twitter itself couldn't (or wouldn't) do: making information truly accessible. In a rational world, this would have been celebrated. Twitter might have approached them with partnership opportunities or acquisition offers.

Instead, the response was cancellation. Not just of the product's access, but of the founders themselves. The message was clear: don't try to solve problems we've failed to fix for years. Don't innovate where we've stagnated. Don't show our users what they're missing.

The irony is palpable. The platform that once promised to be the "free speech wing of the free speech party" now personally punishes those who dare to make information more accessible. The man who claimed to be a "free speech absolutist" now silences individuals who built tools to help people find information more effectively.

Exa showed us what was possible. And for that, they were erased.