Twitter CEO Elon Musk suspended several journalists from the platform and is doubling down on his decision.
Jon Levine, a reporter for The New York Post, shared a screenshot of some of the accounts that have been suspended, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, and independent journalist Aaron Rupar.
Reporters covering Elon Musk being nuked:
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) December 16, 2022
Donie O’Sullivan, @CNN
Drew Harwell, @washingtonpost
Ryan Mac, @nytimes
Aaron Rupar, independent pic.twitter.com/1x9oJijobA
Additionally, according to Fox News, The Intercept journalist Micah Lee, Mashable writer Matt Binder and former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann were also suspended.
Musk later reacted to a screenshot of a tweet from Taylor Lorenz of The Washington Post, saying the accounts were suspended for their criticism of the billionaire.
“Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” Musk tweeted.
Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
He added, “Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7 day suspension.”
Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7 day suspension
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Musk initially posted a poll asking Twitter users whether he should “unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time” now, tomorrow, seven days from now, or longer.
Forty-three percent voted now.
“If anyone posted real-time locations and addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!” Musk argued.
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
Less than an hour later, he posted a new poll with just the options of now or in seven days.
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
During “CNN This Morning,” media analyst Sara Fischer was asked if this behavior makes her nervous about the platform.
“I’m not changing my behavior whatsoever. I’m reporting the truth and if that gets me banned, that gets me banned,” Fischer said.
She added, “But, I do think that I’m going to have to invest a lot more in Instagram and LinkedIn and other platforms just in case.”
Check out the video below:
"I'm not changing my behavior whatsoever. I'm reporting the truth and if that gets me banned, that gets me banned."@sarafischer on Twitter suspending multiple journalists' accounts: pic.twitter.com/aBkxgcND3C
— CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish (@CNNThisMorning) December 16, 2022
Several others shared their reaction to the suspension.
One user wrote, “Despicable from Musk. Utterly despicable. And I’m finding myself progressively more angry with Twitter employees who remain working for him – do they share his propaganda-laced, conspiratorial ideologies?”
Despicable from Musk. Utterly despicable.
— Owen Williams 🏴 (@OwsWills) December 16, 2022
And I’m finding myself progressively more angry with Twitter employees who remain working for him – do they share his propaganda-laced, conspiratorial ideologies? https://t.co/B3PUmxOkEj
Another wrote, “Musk hear, musk see, musk shut-up.”
Musk hear, musk see, musk shut-up. https://t.co/Qi25cFnFH8
— Han ten Broeke (@HanTenBroeke) December 16, 2022
Reporter Ronald Brownstein argued, “The idea that Musk was ever an activist for ‘free speech’ always belied the evidence that his goal w/Twitter has been to empower far-right and extremist voices and to undermine institutions he perceives as left of center or capable of challenging him.”
The idea that Musk was ever an activist for "free speech" always belied the evidence that his goal w/Twitter has been to empower far-right & extremist voices & to undermine institutions he perceives as left of center or capable of challenging him. https://t.co/1TMVLgOBwt
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) December 16, 2022
Musk continued to defend his actions during a Twitter Spaces conference chat hosted by Buzzfeed journalist Katie Notopoulos.
“Yeah, so I am sure that for everyone who has been doxxed would agree, sharing real-time information about someone’s location is inappropriate and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them,” Musk explained.
He continued, “There’s not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists or so-called journalists and regular people. Everyone’s going to be treated the same.”
During the call, he also declared, “You’re not special because you’re a journalist, you are just a user of Twitter [and a] citizen. So no special treatment. You dox, you get suspended. End of story.”
Notopoulos attempted to defend the journalists, saying they were “reporting on” Musk’s real-time flight location and posting the link is considered “pretty normal journalistic endeavors.”
“Do you consider that as a tricky attempt at ban evasion?” she asked.
Holy Shit. Elon Musk just popped into a Twitter Spaces chat with a bunch of journalists. He was called out by journalist Drew Harrell, who he banned, for lying about posting links to his private information, then leaves almost immediately after being pressed. Here is the exchange pic.twitter.com/wVA9Gb5MVJ
— Karbon (@KarbonSays) December 16, 2022
He replied, “If you share the link to the real-time information, ban evasion, obviously.”
The Post’s Drew Harwell chimed in, saying, “You are suggesting we are sharing your address, which is not true.”
Musk fired back, “It is true.”
After Harwell claimed he never posted Musk’s address, Musk responded, “You shared the link to the address.”
Harwell replied, “In the course of reporting about ElonJet, we posted links to ElonJet.”
Concluding his remarks, Musk told the listeners, “You dox, you get suspended, end of story, that’s it.”
