Twitter bans Mastodon, journalists while Elon Musk blasts location sharing
Elon Musk’s Twitter abruptly suspended the accounts of one of its competitors and more than half a dozen tech journalists Thursday night. Musk suggested that users were banned for sharing information about the @ElonJet account, which tracks the movements of Musk’s private jet, which the Twitter CEO claims threatens his safety.
The first Twitter account to be banned on Thursday was from Mastodon, a Twitter rival who has risen in popularity since Musk took over Twitter. The Mastodon account had just announced that @ElonJet had joined its platform after Twitter suspended the account for violating a hastily instituted rule against sharing someone’s location.
Who has Twitter suspended?
Twitter then suspended the accounts of reporters from outlets like that New York Times, the washington post, and CNN and several independent journalists. That new york times’ Ryan Mac, the The Washington Post Among those suspended were Drew Harwell, independent journalist Aaron Rupar and commentator Keith Olbermann. Some of the journalists said they had been permanently suspended. One thing the banned have in common is that they regularly report on Twitter and Musk, sharing updates on @ElonJet’s suspension from Twitter and his reappearance on Mastodon.
Sources on Twitter say they don’t know why these suspensions came about. “All these decisions are now hidden,” said one employee said, who asked to remain anonymous as they are not allowed to speak to the press. “Elon is paranoid. So much for full transparency.”
Why did Twitter suspect tech journalists?
On Thursday evening, Musk indicated on Twitter that at least some journalists had been banned for reporting @ElonJet’s presence on Mastodon. “They posted my exact real-time location, basically the coordinates of the assassination, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter’s terms of service,” Musk said tweeted.
That New York Times called the suspension of its tech reporter Ryan Mac “questionable and regrettable” and said the newspaper had not received an explanation for the suspension.
CNN said the prohibitions were “impulsive and unwarranted,” warning in a statement Thursday night that “Twitter’s increasing instability should be of incredible concern to anyone who uses the platform.”
“We will ban any accounts that violate our privacy policy and endanger other users. We make no exceptions to this policy for journalists or other accounts,” said Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety The edge in an email statement.
What is Twitter’s “Doxxing‘ Politics?
The mass lockdowns are the latest development in a debate on Twitter about “doxxing,” or sharing private information on a public social media account, often to encourage harassment.
On Wednesday, Twitter introduced a new rule blocked users prevent sharing “live location information” on the platform. Twitter banned @ElonJet the same day, which used publicly available flight information to share the location of Musk’s private jet. (Musk previously promised to keep the tracker on Twitter to show his “commitment to freedom of speech.”)
musk claimed on Twitter that accounts that share someone’s real-time location are a security threat and that he would take legal action against Jack Sweeney, the person behind the @ElonJet account.
In the same thread, Musk posted a video of someone he claimed was chasing a car with his son, X AE A-XII. “Does anyone recognize this person or this car?” Musk tweeted, showing the vehicle’s number plate. (Users noted that by sharing the car’s license plate, the Twitter CEO himself was “doxing” someone.)
The Los Angeles Police Department said it was “aware of the situation and Elon Musk’s tweet,” although “criminal reports have not yet been filed.” CNN‘s Donie O’Sullivan tweeted Thursday night. O’Sullivan’s account was suspended soon after.
Additional reporting by Kylie Robison.
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