SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of at least eight prominent journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner, billionaire Elon Musk.
According to The New York Times, the accounts suspended included those of Ryan Mac of the Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; Aaron Rupar, an independent journalist; Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Matt Binder of Mashable; Tony Webster, an independent journalist; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and Keith Olbermann, a political journalist.
It was unclear what the suspensions had in common, although each user’s Twitter page included a message that said the platform suspended accounts that “violate the Twitter rules,” according to the newspaper.
If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
The suspensions followed Musk’s decision on Wednesday to permanently ban an account that automatically tracked the flights of his private jet using publicly available data, The Associated Press reported. The account by Jack Sweeney, the college student who runs @ElonJet, led Twitter to change its rules for all users to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent.
Twitter did not respond to questions about the suspensions. Musk suggested in a tweet that the journalists had revealed private information about his family, also known as “doxxing,” the Post reported.
“Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” Musk tweeted Thursday night.
A CNN spokesperson said the company has asked Twitter for an explanation, and it would “reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”
The moves came a day after Twitter suspended more than 25 accounts that tracked the planes of government agencies, billionaires and high-profile individuals, including that of Musk. https://t.co/zg2khnyOVl
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 16, 2022
Some of the journalists whose accounts were suspended had written about the accounts that tracked the private planes or had tweeted about those accounts, the Times reported. Some had also written articles that were critical of Musk and his recent takeover of Twitter.
“It’s impossible to square Twitter’s free speech aspirations with the purging of critical journalists’ accounts,” Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “The First Amendment protects Musk’s right to do this, but it’s a terrible decision. Their accounts should be restored immediately.”
Binder said he was banned Thursday night immediately after sharing a screenshot that O’Sullivan had posted before the CNN reporter’s suspension, according to the AP.
The screenshot showed a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department sent earlier Thursday to multiple media outlets, including the AP, about how it was in touch with Musk’s representatives about the alleged stalking incident, but that no crime report had yet been filed.
“I did not share any location data, as per Twitter’s new terms. Nor did I share any links to ElonJet or other location-tracking accounts,” Binder told the AP in an email. “I have been highly critical of Musk but never broke any of Twitter’s listed policies.”
Harwell’s account was suspended after he tweeted that “Free speech is when the world’s second-richest man threatens legal action against a 20-year-old college student for sharing publicly available data he doesn’t like.”
“Tonight’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate,” Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for the Times, said in a statement. “Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”
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