Twitter bans some journalists who cover Elon Musk
Twitter has suspended accounts belonging to several prominent journalists covering the social media company’s owner Elon Musk.
Reporters for The New York Times, CNN and Washington Post are among those who found themselves locked out of their accounts on Thursday evening.
A Twitter spokeswoman told tech website The Verge that the ban was related to the live sharing of location data.
The news comes just a day after Musk vowed to take legal action against the owner of a Twitter account that tracks Musk’s private jet use.
Twitter’s banned journalists
The list of banned journalists includes The Intercept’s Micha Lee, Mashable’s Matt Binder and independent journalists Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster.
A New York Times spokesman said the suspensions were “questionable and unfortunate,” and said they received no explanation for the action.
CNN says the “impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters…is concerning but not surprising”. It has asked Twitter for an explanation and will “reevaluate our relationship based on that response”.
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan said the move was significant for “the potential chilling impact” it could have on journalists, particularly those who cover Musk’s other companies.
‘Criticising me is fine, but doxing my location is dangerous’
Whilst Musk did not comment directly on the suspensions directly, he did tweet: “criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not”.
He added that accounts engaged in doxxing – the releasing of private information about individuals online, will receive a temporary seven-day suspension.
Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told The Verge that bans are related to a new rule introduced on Wednesday that prohibits “live location information, including information shared on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes.”
“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
“We don’t make exceptions to this policy for journalists or any other accounts.”
Elon Musk to take legal action against Jack Sweeney
On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account @ElonJet as well as other accounts using publicly available information to track his private jet.
The owner of the account, Jack Sweeney, 20, also had his personal account blocked.
Elon Musk, who recently lost his title as the world’s richest man, said he will sue Sweeney as well as “organizations who supported harm to my family”.
