Elon Musk said on Saturday that he would reinstate the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended during a controversy over the release of public data about the billionaire’s planes. Seen here is an illustration of Musk and the Twitter logo in Brussels, Belgium.
Jonathan Raa | Take a photo | beautiful pictures
Elon Musk restored the Twitter accounts of several journalists that had been suspended for a day over a controversy over the release of public data about the billionaire’s plane.
The reinstatement comes after unprecedented suspensions prompted harsh criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and news organizations from several parts of the world on Friday. , with some saying the microblogging platform is endangering press freedom.
Twitter poll which Musk subsequently conducted also showed that the majority of respondents wanted their accounts restored immediately.
“Everyone has spoken. My position doxx accounts will be lifted now,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. A Reuters check showed that the suspended accounts, including journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, had been reinstated.
Officials from France, Germany, the UK and the European Union had earlier condemned the suspension.
The episode that a famous security researcher labeled as “Thursday Night Massacre,” is being seen by critics as fresh evidence of Musk, who considers himself a “liberalist” who purges speech and users he personally dislikes.
shares in Teslaan electric car maker led by Musk, fell 4.7% on Friday and posted its worst weekly loss since March 2020, with investors growing increasingly concerned about the he was distracted and about the slowing global economy.
Roland Lescure, French Minister of Industry, tweeted on Friday, after Musk suspends journalists, he will suspend his own activity on Twitter.
Melissa Fleming, the UN’s head of communications, tweeted that she “confusion” by the suspension and that “freedom of the media is not a toy.”
The German Foreign Ministry has warned on Twitter that it has a problem with moves that endanger press freedom.
jet plane
The suspension stemmed from a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk’s private jet using publicly available information.
On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets, despite Musk’s earlier tweet saying he would not be suspending ElonJet in the name of free speech.
Shortly after, Twitter changed its privacy policy to prohibit the sharing of “live location information”.
Then on Thursday night, a number of journalists, including from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, had Twitter suspended without notice.
In an email to Reuters overnight, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said the team had manually reviewed “any and all accounts” for privacy policy violations. new by posting direct links to an ElonJet account.
“I understand that the focus seems to be primarily on journalist accounts, but we apply this policy equally to journalist and non-journalist accounts today,” Irwin said. said in email.
In a statement on Friday, the Association for the Advancement of the Editorial and Writing Business said Twitter’s actions “violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow distributes unfiltered information already in the public square.”
Musk accused journalists of posting his real-time location, which is “basic assassination coordinates” for his family.
The billionaire appeared briefly in an audio chat on Twitter Spaces hosted by journalists, which quickly turned into a controversial discussion about whether the suspended reporters were for real. whether or not Musk’s real-time location disclosure violates policy.
“If you do it wrong, you’ll be suspended. End of story,” Musk repeated in response to questions. “Dox” is a term for publishing personal information about someone, usually with malicious intent.
The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, one of the journalists who has been suspended but is still able to join the audio conversation, has dismissed the notion that he has revealed the exact location of Musk or his family. us by posting a link to ElonJet.
Shortly after, BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos, who hosted the Spaces chat, tweeted that the audio session was cut off abruptly and the recording was unavailable.
In a tweet explaining what happened, Musk said, “We’re fixing a Legacy bug. Will work tomorrow.”
