News Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: Microblogging website Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who recently brought out write-ups about its new CEO Elon Musk.
Twitter suspends accounts
Musk tweeted that the rules banning the publishing of personal information applied to all including journalists.
In a tweet, Musk said that the same ‘doxxing’ rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else a reference.
He said this while referring to the rules banning the sharing of personal information, called ‘doxxing’.
Twitter on Wednesday suspended @elonjet, an account tracking Musk’s private jet in real-time using data available in the public domain. Musk said on Thursday that criticizing him all day long was totally fine, but doxxing his real-time location and endangering his family was not.
The suspensions come after Musk has repeatedly vowed to uphold absolute free speech on the Twitter he bought for $44 billion in October. He reinstated the account of former US President Donald Trump, who had been suspended from Twitter over his actions surrounding the Jan 6, 2021, siege of the Capitol.
After firing thousands of employees after Musk took over Twitter in October, the platform has been operating with fewer staff. It is now leaning heavily on automation to moderate content, favouring restrictions on distribution rather than removing certain speech outright.
Twitter showed “account suspended” notices for several journalists’ accounts. The platform also suspended the official account of social media company Mastodon (@joinmastodon), which had emerged as an alternative to Twitter.
Journalists’ accounts
The accounts of Times reporter Ryan Mac (@rmac18), Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell (@drewharwell), CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan (@donie), and Mashable reporter Matt Binder @MattBinder had been suspended. The account of Aaron Rupar (@atrupar), who covers US policy and politics, had also been suspended.
A spokesperson for The New York Times said that the suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists was questionable and unfortunate. The spokesperson said that neither The New York Times nor Ryan has received any explanation about the account suspension. The spokesperson said that they hoped that the accounts of all journalists were reinstated and that Twitter provided a satisfying explanation for its action.
CNN said “the impulsive and unjustified” suspensions were concerning but not surprising. It said it had asked Twitter for an explanation and it would reevaluate its relationship with Twitter based on the response.
