Twitter Inc. suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists covering the social network’s billionaire owner Elon Musk, who alleged they were endangering his family.
Silencing journalists at Twitter while claiming to be a free speech champion is the latest controversy provoked by Musk since he took over the company, which has seen staffing gutted and advertisers exit.
Late Thursday, reporters from publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Mashable and CNN were listed as blocked and their Tweets were no longer visible. Musk said the suspended profiles, which included sports and political commentator Keith Olbermann, were of people who had posted his real-time location, describing the information as “basically assassination coordinates”.
“I was given no warning. I have no email or communication from the company about the reason for suspension,” New York Times reporter Ryan Mac tweeted from a new account. He posted a screen grab from the app saying he’s been permanently suspended. “I report on Twitter, Elon Musk and his companies and I will continue to do so.”
Musk falsely claimed that the journalists had violated his new “doxing” policy by sharing his live location. CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan allegedly did not share the billionaire’s live location.
Shortly before his suspension, O’Sullivan reported on Twitter that the social media company had suspended the account of an emerging competitive social media service, Mastodon, which has allowed the continued posting of @ElonJet, an account that posts the updated location of Musk’s private jet.
Other reporters suspended Thursday had recently written about the account.
Musk argued that pointing or linking to any source that might reveal his jet’s whereabouts was tantamount to posting his real time location.
The Twitter account that tracked flights of Musk’s private jet was shut down Wednesday despite the billionaire’s statement that he is a free speech absolutist.
Source: News24 Business, Eyewitness News, CNN, NBC News, Al Jazeera, image from Twitter: @FoxNews