Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who have recently written about its new owner Elon Musk, with the billionaire tweeting that the rules banning the release of personal information apply to everyone, including journalists.
In response to a tweet about account suspensions, musk tweeted, “‘Journalists’ follow same doxing rules as everyone else,” a reference to Twitter Rules prohibiting the sharing of personal information, called doxxing.
The same doxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
On Wednesday, Twitter suspended @elonjet, an account that tracks Musk’s private jet in real-time with publicly available data. Musk had threatened the account operator with legal action, saying his son had been mistakenly stalked by a “crazy stalker.”
Musk added Thursday, “Criticizing myself all day is perfectly fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family isn’t.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suspensions come after Musk repeatedly vowed to uphold absolute freedom of expression on the platform he bought for US$44 billion (about Rs.3.6 billion) in October. He restored the account of former President Donald Trump, who had been suspended from Twitter for his actions related to the January 6, 2021 US Capitol siege.
“I hope even my worst critics stay on Twitter because that means freedom of expression,” Musk tweeted in April.
After laying off thousands of employees following Musk’s $44 billion (approximately Rs.3.6 billion) takeover in October, Twitter is operating with severely reduced staffing. It now relies heavily on automation to moderate content, do away with certain manual reviews and favor distribution restrictions rather than removing certain idioms entirely, its new trust and safety director, Ella Irwin, told Reuters this month.
Twitter showed “account suspended” notifications for a number of journalist accounts on Thursday. It also suspended the official account of social media company Mastodon (@joinmastodon), which has emerged as an alternative to Twitter since Musk bought it.
Mastodon was not immediately available for comment.
Times reporter Ryan Mac (@rmac18), Post reporter Drew Harwell (@drewharwell), CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan (@donie), and Mashable reporter Matt Binder @MattBinder have had their accounts suspended. Independent journalist Aaron Rupar (@atrupar), who covers US politics and politics, has also had his account suspended.
A spokesman for The New York Times said: “Today’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, is questionable and regrettable. Neither the Times nor Ryan have received an explanation as to why this happened. We hope that all journalists’ accounts will be recovered and that Twitter will provide a satisfactory explanation for this action.”
CNN said the “impulsive and unwarranted” suspensions were worrying but not surprising. The network said it reached out to Twitter for an explanation and will reevaluate its relationship with the platform based on that response.
The other reporters could not be immediately reached for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
