Yesterday, Twitter banned several accounts that tracked the locations of private jets â including that belonging to owner and CEO Elon Musk â and updated its Private Information Policy. Now, the popular micro-blogging site has controversially suspended accounts of several noted journalists who reported on Twitter and Musk without any explanation or warning whatsoever.
The latest ban on accounts in the Musk “Free Speech” era includes Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie OâSullivan of CNN, American sports and political commentator Keith Olbermann, The Washington Postâs Drew Harwell, The Interceptâs Micha Lee, Mashableâs Matt Binder, as well as independent journalists Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster. Several of these journalists have been known to cover Musk, and the last tweets/stores of several of these accounts were on Twitterâs suspension of accounts that tracked private jets using publicly available flight data.
Ryan Mac later tweeted from a new account that he had received no warning from the company prior to the suspension of his account, as well as no reason why his account had earned a permanent suspension. Ruparâs words echoed similar tones, and he added that he had posted a tweet (before he was suspended) that âthe ElonJet account that was suspended from Twitter was still active on Facebook, with a link to the Facebook page.â Matt Binder found himself suspended after he doubted Muskâs claim of a âcrazy stalker.â
The suspension of the accounts closely follows Twitterâs move to suspend the Twitter account of Mastodon, an open-source software that offers Twitter-like microblogging features and which has been soaring in popularity ever since Musk took over. The ban against Mastodonâs Twitter account came after it tweeted a link to @ElonJet on its own service, and Twitter followed that by marking links to Mastodon as âpotentially harmful.â One of Harwellâs last posts prior to his suspension had been about the suspension of Mastodonâs Twitter account.
This was The Washington Post's @drewharwell's post before he was suspended from Twitter, outlining how Twitter suspended the account of its competitor Mastodon earlier today. pic.twitter.com/Vc8QuwHXZE
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) December 16, 2022
âTonightâs suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including the New York Timesâs Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate,â said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the New York Times, in a statement. âNeither the Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalistsâ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.â
“The impulsive and unjustified suspensions of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising,” CNN said in a statement that was posted on Twitter. “Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern to everyone who uses the platform. We have asked Twitter for an explanation.” It added that it would re-evaluate its relationship with the social media major based on its response.
Statement on tonight's suspension of CNN's @donie O'Sullivan: pic.twitter.com/TQGsysxvpf
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 16, 2022
âWithout commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk,â said Ella Irwin, Twitterâs head of trust and safety. âWe donât make exceptions to this policy for journalists or any other accounts.â Musk further indicated that the suspended accounts violated Twitter’s doxxing rules, which âapply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else.”
so far, iâve been able to confirm about half the accounts suspended posted links to the jet tracker thing in violation of the new doxxâing policy. unclear just yet about the rest, but i think itâs safe to say the rule is for real. https://t.co/8MDCG19kNO
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) December 16, 2022
Is this Muskâs vision of free speech on the platform, where he suspends the accounts of those who cover developments related to the billionaire and his actions with Twitter? Musk had earlier indicated that he would leave the @ElonJet account be as he turned Twitter into a hub for âhealthy, functioning” free speech â and now follows it up by silencing his critics and journalists who report on Twitter and Elon âfree speech absolutistâ Musk alike. If being critical of the billionaire or reporting on him as a journalist earns an individual the boot from Twitter, then it is an instance of Muskâs interesting interpretation of what free speech is.