Elon Musk Suspends Twitter Accounts of Journalists Who Share Private Information About His Whereabouts

Several notable journalists from reputable news organizations, like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, who have covered stories about Twitter CEO Elon Musk, have been suspended on the social media platform.

The journalists' Twitter accounts were suspended Thursday evening without explanation. The most notable of these journalists include CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, The New York Times' Ryan Mac, and The Washington Post's Drew Harwell, all of whom covered Musk extensively in recent weeks.

According to CNN, their accounts have all been "abruptly permanently suspended" by the social media platform. These journalists have been writing about Musk's new "doxxing" policy to a stalking incident that affected his family on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

Elon Musk and Twitter Did Not Give an Explanation for Suspending Journalists' Accounts

The journalists' companies have already asked Twitter for an explanation. However, neither Twitter nor Elon Musk responded to any request for clarification.

This received much criticism from the outlets, with a CNN spokesperson saying that they will reevaluate their relationship with Twitter based on that response. The spokesperson also called the suspension of the journalists on Twitter "impulsive and unjustified."

The spokesperson added that it was concerning but not surprising due to Twitter's "increasing instability and volatility," which should be a great "concern for everyone who uses Twitter."

The New York Times called the decision "questionable and unfortunate." The outlet also received no explanation why its journalist was banned from the platform.

Another suspended journalist, Matt Binder of the tech news outlet Mashable, noted that he was banned after he shared a screenshot of what CNN's Donie O'Sullivan posted.

According to the Associated Press, the screenshot showed a Los Angeles Police Department statement saying they were in touch with Musk's representatives about an alleged stalking incident.

Since it was a public statement from law enforcement, it was considered to be released to the public. However, the journalists were still suspended for posting it.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk Claims Journalists Were 'Doxxing' Him

According to NBC News, Elon Musk later addressed the issue. In a tweet, the Twitter CEO said the "same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else."

The act of "doxxing" means disclosing somebody's identity, address, or other personal details online. Musk noted that "criticizing him all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not."

Citing Musk, NBC News reported that the suspensions stemmed from Twitter's new rules banning private jet trackers. The Twitter CEO tweeted that the accounts banned posted "my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service."

However, many still felt that Twitter's punishments were too heavy-handed, even with Musk's explanation that the journalists had posted something that might have given away his location.

"I did not share any location data, as per Twitter's new terms. Nor did I share any links to ElonJet or other location-tracking accounts," said Binder, who admitted that while he has been critical of Musk, he had never broken any of the platform's policies.

Elon Musk later tweeted that the suspensions would last seven days.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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