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.
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.
He added, “Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7 day suspension.”
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.
Less than an hour later, he posted a new poll with just the options of now or in seven days.
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:
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?”
Another wrote, “Musk hear, musk see, musk shut-up.”
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.”
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 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.
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.”