Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner Elon Musk. Among them were reporters working for The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other outlets.
The company hasn’t explained to the journalists why it took down the accounts and made their profiles and past tweets disappear. But Musk took to Twitter Thursday night to accuse journalists of sharing private information about his whereabouts that he described as ‘basically assassination coordinates.” He provided no evidence for that claim.
Twitter also suspended the account of Mastodon which has emerged as an alternative to Twitter. Mastodon could not immediately be reached for comment.
The sudden suspension of news reporters followed Musk’s decision Wednesday to permanently ban an account that automatically tracked the flights of his private jet using publicly available data. That also led Twitter to change its rules for all users to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent.
Several of the reporters suspended Thursday night had been writing about the new policy and Musk’s rationale for imposing it which involved his allegations about a stalking incident he said affected his family on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
Musk on Thursday tweeted: “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else” He later added: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real time location and endangering my family is not.”
The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee called for technology reporter Drew Harwell’s Twitter account to be reinstated immediately. The suspension directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech. Buzbee wrote: “Harwell was banished without warning, process or explanation, following the publication of his accurate reporting about Musk.”
CNN said in a statement that “the impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan is concerning but not surprising.”
CNN statement added, “Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter. We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”
Another suspended journalist, Matt Binder of the Technology News Outlet said he was banned Thursday night immediately after sharing a screenshot that O’Sullivan had posted before the CNN reporters suspension.
The screenshot showed a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department sent earlier Thursday to multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press, 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 Elon Jet or other location tracking accounts.”
“I have been highly critical of Musk but never broke any of Twitter’s listed policies.” Binder said in an email.
Binder said a message he received while trying to access his Twitter account showed that his suspension was permanent. But Musk later suggested the penalty would last a week in response to a question about his suspension of former ESPN and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.
Late Thursday, Musk briefly joined a Twitter Spaces conference chat hosted by journalist Kate Notopoulos of Buzzfeed. He reiterated his claims that the journalists Twitter banned were “doxxing” him when they were reporting on the jet tracking accounts being banned.
“There is no special treatment for journalists.” Musk said after being asked by the Post’s Drew Harwell if he had a connection between the stalking incident and posting of real-time information.
“You dox, you get suspended, end of story.” He added before abruptly signing out. The Spaces ended abruptly shortly after 9p.m Pacific time.
Host Notopoulos tweeted at 9:14p.m. Pacific time, “Sorry it appears the Space cut out, screen went suddenly blank on my end and everyone got booted.”
Another suspended reporter, Steve Herman of Voice of America, said he assumes he was banned “because I was tweeting about other journalists being suspended for tweeting about accounts being booted that had linked to the Elton Jet feed.”
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