Elon Musk Rightly suspends more than half a dozen journalists twitter accounts involved in doxxing

Elon Musk Rightly suspends more than half a dozen journalists twitter accounts involved in doxxing

Written by Peter Boykin on December 16, 2022

Elon Musk Rightly suspends more than half a dozen journalists twitter accounts involved in doxxing

Shared By Peter Boykin – American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist

Elon Musk Rightly suspends more than half a dozen journalists twitter accounts involved in doxxing

Twitter suspended the accounts of more than half a dozen journalists from CNN, the New York Times, The Washington Post, Voice of America and other outlets, as company executives appeared to accuse the reporters of endangering the safety of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s family.

The suspensions came without warning or initial explanation from Twitter.

Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.

Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022

Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.

Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022

Anyone recognize this person or car? pic.twitter.com/2U0Eyx7iwl

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022

Aaron Rupar, a Substack writer with nearly 800,000 followers on Twitter, had his account suspended minutes earlier, according to screenshots taken by other users.

He had published an article about Twitter suspending accounts that used public data to track the location of Musk’s private plane.

Matt Binder, a Mashable reporter, was tweeting about O’Sullivan’s suspension when his account also went dark.

Independent journalist Tony Webster’s account was also suspended. So were the accounts of former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, Intercept reporter Micah Lee and Voice of America’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman.

Ella Irwin, the company’s head of trust and safety, has carried out many of Musk’s orders since he purchased the company in late October and began upending it rules in the name of what he called “Free speech.”

A prior suspension was marked “Direction of Elon.” Twitter did not respond to questions about the suspensions, but Irwin told the Verge:

“Without 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.”

In response to tweets celebrating the suspensions late, Musk suggested without evidence that the journalists had revealed private information about his family, also known as doxxing.

Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in late October, and quickly set about undoing many of the previous management’s policies against hate speech and misinformation.

He has moved to restore former president Donald Trump and other accounts suspended under prior management, saying Twitter’s new policy is “Freedom of speech but not freedom of reach.” But Musk’s Twitter had already banned some high-profile accounts prior to this apparent purge.

Rep. Lori Trahan wrote on Twitter that her staff had met that same day with Twitter officials.

“They told us that they’re not going to retaliate against independent journalists or researchers who publish criticisms of the platform. Less than 12 hours later, multiple technology reporters have been suspended.”

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

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

The Committee to Protect Journalists assailed the suspensions in a statement:

“We are concerned about news reports that journalists who have covered recent developments involving Twitter and its owner, Elon Musk, have had their accounts on the platform suspended. If confirmed as retaliation for their work, this would be a serious violation of journalists’ right to report the news without fear of reprisal.”

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