Twitter suspends Prominent Journalists linked to Flight tracking
It was another normal night on Twitter, with Elon Musk banning several prominent tech journalists who have covered him critically and taking part in a bizarre Twitter Spaces event.
You know, standard Thursday stuff.
The accounts belonging to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and other journalists who have covered Musk aggressively in recent weeks were all abruptly permanently suspended. The account of progressive independent journalist Aaron Rupar was also banned.
Neither Musk nor Twitter responded to CNN’s request for comment and the platform did not formally (say) why the journalists were exiled from the platform.
But, in a series of sporadic tweets, Musk claimed that the journalists had violated his new “doxxing” policy by sharing his “exact real-time” location, amounting to what he described as “assassination coordinates.” None of the banned journalists appeared to have shared Musk’s precise real-time location.
Musk claimed that the journalists doxxed him, but that isn’t what happened. They either reported on or shared links to the now-banned ElonJets Twitter account, which shared flight information for private jets for Musk (as well as other billionaires and government entities on other accounts). The information the accounts shared is a matter of public record, and Musk had previously said that allowing the account to operate proved his commitment to free speech.
Musk appeared briefly on a Twitter Space hosted by a BuzzFeed reporter to defend himself. “You’re just a Twitter citizen. So no special treatment,” Musk said. “You dox, you get suspended, end of story.”
He left the Space while the reporter tried to ask him a question. Shortly after, the Space went black and was forced to end.
Why it matters: It’s Musk’s social network. He has the right to do what he wants with it. But the lack of consistent moderation – which has seen accounts owned by white nationalists brought back after breaking of rules – and his abandoning of the free speech principles he said motivated his purchase are concerning to any brand still using the platform.
