Elon Musk’s abrupt suspension of some journalists from covering Twitter has deepened a widening rift between the social networking site and the media organizations that have used the platform to build their audiences.
Elon Musk’s abrupt suspension of some journalists from covering Twitter has deepened a widening rift between the social networking site and the media organizations that have used the platform to build their audiences.
Personal reporter with The New York TimesThe Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other news agencies saw their accounts Thursday night.
Musk tweeted late Friday that the company would lift the suspension following the results of a public poll on the site. The poll found that 58.7% of respondents were in favor of canceling an account suspension immediately compared with 41.3% who said the suspension should be lifted after seven days.
The company did not explain why the accounts were taken down. But Musk took to Twitter on Thursday night to accuse journalists of sharing personal information about his whereabouts, which he described as “basically assassination coordinates.” He provided no evidence for that claim.
Many advertisers abandoned Twitter because of content moderation questions after Musk acquired it in October, and he is now in danger of parting ways with media organizations, one of the most active. best on this platform.
Most accounts were back early Saturday. One exception is Business Insider’s Linette Lopez, Who was suspended after other journalists, too, had no explanation, she told the Associated Press.
Lopez published a series of articles between 2018 and 2021 highlighting what she calls dangerous Tesla production deficiencies.
Just before her suspension, she said she posted court-related documents on Twitter, including Musk’s 2018 email address. That address isn’t current because “he changes his email every few weeks,” Lopez said.
On Tuesday, she posted a 2019 story about Tesla’s troubles, commenting: “Now, just like then, most of @elonmusk’s injuries are caused by myself.”
On the same day, she cited reports that Musk was extending severance to fired Twitter employees, threatening workers to speak to the media and refusing to pay rent. Lopez described her actions as “classic Elon-go-for-bankruptcy behavior.”
Alarm about suspension extends beyond media to United Nationis reconsidering joining Twitter.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the move sets “a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists around the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even threats.” even worse.”
Reporters are suspended following Musk’s decision on Wednesday to permanently ban an account from automatically tracking the flights of his private jets using publicly available data. It also prompted Twitter to change its rules for all users to prohibit sharing other people’s current location without their consent.
Several reporters suspended on Thursday night wrote about the new policy and Musk’s rationale for imposing it, regarding his allegations of a stalking incident that he said affected to his family on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
The official Twitter account of Mastodon, a decentralized alternative social network where many Twitter users are on the run, is also banned. The reason is unclear, although it did tweet about the jet-following account. Twitter also started preventing users from posting links to Mastodon accounts, which in some cases flagged them as potential malware.
“Of course this is a blatant lie,” network security Journalist Brian Krebs posted.
Explaining the reporter ban, Musk tweeted, “The same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as they do to everyone else.”
He then added: “It’s perfectly fine to criticize me all day, but doxx my real-time location and endanger my family’s not.”
“Doxxing” refers to revealing someone’s identity, address, phone number, or other personal details that violates their privacy and can be harmful.
The Washington D.C The Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said tech reporter Drew Harwell “was expelled without warning, handling or explanation” after publishing an accurate report on Musk.
CNN said in a statement that “the impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising.”
The statement added: “Twitter’s growing instability and volatility will be of incredible concern to all Twitter users.
Another suspended journalist, Matt Binder of tech news agency Mashable, said he was banned on Thursday night shortly after sharing a screenshot that O’Sullivan had posted prior to his suspension.
The screenshot shows a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department sent earlier on Thursday to various media outlets, including the AP, about how they contacted Musk’s representatives about the alleged incident. monitor.
Binder said he did not share any location data or any links to jet-tracking accounts or other location-tracking accounts.
“I’m very critical of Musk but have never violated any of Twitter’s listed policies,” Binder said in an email.
The suspension comes as Musk makes major changes to content moderation on Twitter. He tried, through the release of select corporate documents called “Twitter Files,” to claim that the platform suppressed right-wing voices under previous leaders. its.
He has promised to let free speech reign and has reinstated popular accounts that previously violated Twitter’s rules for hateful conduct or harmful misinformation. He has also said that he will stop negativity and hatred by stripping some accounts of “free access”.
Opinion columnist Bari Weiss, who tweeted several “Twitter Profiles,” has called for the reinstatement of suspended journalists.
“The old regime at Twitter is run by its own whims and biases and it seems the new mode has the same problem,” she tweeted. “I object to that in both cases.”
Lou Paskalis, a longtime communications and marketing executive and former head of global communications for Bank of America, said if the suspension resulted in the departure of active media organizations extreme on Twitter, the platform will be changed at a fundamental level.
CBS briefly shut down Twitter in November due to “uncertainty” about the new management, but media organizations have largely remained on the platform.
Paskalis said: “We all know the breaking news on Twitter… and until now, after journalists actually saw the main platform tent pole of Twitter. “Getting journalists off Twitter is the biggest self-inflicted wound I can think of.”
Paskalis said the suspension could be the biggest warning sign for advertisers, some of whom have slashed their spending on Twitter because of uncertainty over Musk’s direction on the platform. this.
“It’s a clear demonstration of what advertisers fear most – punishment for an action that Elon disagrees with,” he added.
On Thursday night, Twitter’s Spaces conference chat went down shortly after Musk abruptly signed out of a session hosted by a journalist in which he was questioned about reporters being fired. waste. Musk later tweeted that Spaces had been taken offline to deal with the “Legacy bug”. Late Friday, Spaces returned.
Advertisers are also monitoring the possibility of losing Twitter users. Twitter is expected to lose 32 million users over the next two years, according to an Insider Intelligence forecast, citing technical problems and the return of accounts banned for offensive posts.
Meanwhile, some Twitter alternatives are gaining momentum.
Mastodon on Friday had more than 6 million users, nearly double the 3.4 million on the day Musk took ownership of Twitter. On many of the thousands of networks linked in the open-source Mastodon platform, administrators and users have appealed for donations as disgruntled Twitter users deplete computing resources. Many networks, known as “cases”, are funded by the community. This platform is designed to be ad-free.
