California, US: More than a dozen journalists’ Twitter accounts were suspended for writing about the company and its new owner Mr. Elon Musk.
A few of the journalists had been tweeting over the closure of the @ElonJet account on Twitter, which tracked the private jet flights of the billionaire, as well as accounts that were similar to it that were active on other social media platforms. The suspension of the reporters’ accounts was not explained by Twitter.
“Nothing says free speech like suspending journalists who cover you,” Ms. Sarah Reese Jones, a journalist, tweeted in response to posts about the suspensions. Independent journalists as well as journalists from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post had their accounts suspended.
Aaron Rupar says he hasn’t been given a reason: https://t.co/fX87uK9va0
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 16, 2022
Mr. Musk appeared to blame the tracking of his jet for this alleged incident in a tweet he posted recently, claiming that a car carrying one of his children in Los Angeles was being followed by “a crazy stalker.”
The Twitter account that tracked flights of Mr. Musk’s private jet was shut down despite the billionaire’s statement that he is a free speech absolutist, as per the report.
Later, Twitter announced that it has changed its policy to generally forbid tweets from revealing a person’s location in real-time.
“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Mr. Musk tweeted.
Doxxing is the practice of publishing personal information online, such as a home address or phone number, usually with the intention of abusing a particular person. Tweets sharing a person’s location that are “not same-day” are allowed under the tweaked policy, as are posts about being at a public event such as a concert, Twitter mentioned.