Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk, has placed a temporary suspension on accounts of several left-wing journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN on Thursday after the accounts reportedly violated the platform’s doxing guidelines.
CNN’s politics and tech correspondent Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times technology reporter Ryan Mac, The Washington Post’s technology reporter Drew Harwell, Mashable’s tech reporter Matt Binder, The Intercept tech reporter Micah Lee, Voice of America’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman, journalist Aaron Rupar, and sports and political commentator Keith Olbermann were some of the notable left-wing accounts to be suspended on Thursday for violating the Twitter Rules.
Musk alleged on Thursday that all these accounts posted his exact location online, putting him and his family in danger.
“They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service,” he wrote on Twitter. “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”
He also announced that any account, regardless of it being a public figure, that engages in doxxing, will be placed on a temporary seven-day suspension from Twitter.
Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7 day suspension
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Responding to a tweet, Musk had previously announced, “same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else.”
They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Twitter’s new head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin told the Verge in a statement saying “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.”
Re: the banning of reporters who have tweeted about Elon Musk’s jet, Twitter's head of trust & safety Ella Irwin tells me: “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."
— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) December 16, 2022
Later in the day, Musk joined a Twitter space hosted by Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopoulos and further explained his decision to ban the left-wing journalists.
“As I’m sure everyone who’s doxxed would agree,” Musk told listeners to the Spaces, “drawing real time information about somebody’s location is inappropriate, and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them.”
“And there is not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists, simple journalists, and regular people. Everyone’s gonna be treated the same. You’re not special because you’re a journalist. You’re just, on Twitter you’re just a citizen, so no special treatment,” he continued.
“You dox, you get suspended, end of story. And ban evasion, or trying to be clever about it, like ‘I posted a link to the real time information,’ that is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning. That’s no different from actually sharing real time information,” he concluded.
Buzzfeed's Katie Notopoulos was hosting a Twitter space with some of the journalists who had earlier tonight been suspended for 7 days speaking on stage. @elonmusk came into the room, was invited up as a speaker, and responded to a few questions. Here's the recording👇 pic.twitter.com/O0woRCbXMh
— Jan Jekielek (@JanJekielek) December 16, 2022
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