Twitter suspends journalists covering Elon Musk

Twitter’s billionaire owner Elon Musk has defended the platform’s decision to suspend the accounts of journalists that have written critical stories about him along with an account that tracks the movements of his private jet.

Musk joined an audio chat discussion on Twitter on Friday, AEDT, and implied that the journalists had been banned for “trying to evade” Twitter’s new policy against sharing live locations, which is designed to prevent physical harassment and abuse. “Showing 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,” Musk said. “And there’s not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists and regular people. Everyone’s going to be treated the same.”

He left the Twitter space as the journalists began to pepper him with questions about his claims.

On Friday AEDT accounts for reporters from publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Mashable, and CNN were listed as blocked and their tweets were no longer visible, with the company’s standard notice saying it “suspends accounts that violate the Twitter rules.“

Elon Musk has sacked thousands of staff since taking over Twitter last month.Credit: Getty

Twitter also suspended the account of rival social-media site Mastodon, which earlier had posted a link on its Twitter page to an account on its own site that uses publicly available flight data to track Musk’s private jet.

Musk has called himself a “free-speech absolutist” and took over Twitter with the goal of eliminating censorship.

The Twitter accounts of Donie O’Sullivan of CNN and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post were suspended.Credit: Twitter

The accounts suspended included Ryan Mac of The New York Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; Aaron Rupar, an independent journalist; Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Matt Binder of Mashable; Tony Webster, an independent journalist; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and political journalist Keith Olbermann.

Some of the journalists whose accounts were suspended had written about the accounts that tracked the private planes or had tweeted about those accounts. Some have also written articles that have been critical of Musk and his ownership of Twitter. Many of them had tens of thousands of followers on the platform.

Twitter’s banning spree began around the time that Musk shared a video of a masked man filming from a car that he said was carrying his son. He claimed that the “stalker” had been enabled by flight tracking data, but provided no evidence to support that assertion.

On the call, journalists defended the publication of flight tracking data as necessary for air traffic control and a public good, enabling scrutiny of billionaires’ environmental claims. Jack Sweeney, the creator of the ElonJet page, said that tracking a plane did not endanger personal safety because airports were enormous and had many entrances and exits and that the owners of private jets had extensive security.

The Twitter accounts of Donie O’Sullivan of CNN and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post were suspended.Credit: Twitter

Musk did not respond to a request for comment and Twitter did not respond to an email for comment.

“Tonight’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate,” said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times. “Neither the Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”

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.”

“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” CNN’s statement added. “We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”

“I was disappointed to see that I was suspended from Twitter without explanation,” Webster, whose account was suspended, said in an emailed comment. He added that he had tweeted about the Twitter account that tracked Musk’s private plane before his suspension.

Binder, the Mashable journalist, said that he had been critical of Musk but had not broken any of Twitter’s listed policies.

After his suspension from Twitter, Sweeney turned to Mastodon, an alternative social network. After Mastodon used Twitter to promote Sweeney’s new account Thursday, Twitter suspended Mastodon’s account. As some journalists shared the news of Mastodon’s suspension, their own accounts were suspended.

Musk, who purchased Twitter for $US44 billion, had said that his takeover would expand free speech on the platform and allow more people to participate in the public conversation. In recent weeks, he allowed some banned users to return to the platform, including former President Donald Trump, who was barred from his account after the January 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill.

Bloomberg L.P. with New York Times and AP

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