Elon Musk defends Twitter suspension of mainstream journalists who write about him: ‘Same rules apply’

Twitter chief says doxxing rules apply to journalists as well

Billionaire Elon Musk on Friday defended the suspension of prominent journalists from Twitter, many of whom regularly write about him and the social media platform.

Twitter suspended the accounts of independent journalist Aaron Rupar, CNN's Donie O’Sullivan, Mashable’s Matt Binder, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post and Ryan Mac of The New York Times, all of whom have covered Mr Musk in recent months.

The series of suspensions began after Twitter’s new boss on Wednesday permanently banned the account ”ElonJet”, which tracked his private jets using publicly available data.

Twitter also changed its rules to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent.

“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info,” Mr Musk said.

When questioned about the abrupt ban on the four journalists, the Tesla CEO responded saying: “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else.”

Following strong pushback, Mr Musk said the accounts engaged in “doxxing” will be suspended temporarily for seven days.

Twitter will add the feature of displaying the suspension notice on the accounts, he said, adding that the “current system isn’t clear”.

Although Mr Musk has been on a damage-control spree, it appears Twitter lacks a proper set of guidelines for accounts that engage in sharing his real-time location.

In a poll on Twitter, he asked when he should unsuspend accounts that doxxed his “exact location”. The options varied from “now” to “seven days from now” to “longer”.

He said criticising him “all day is fine” but doxxing his real-time location and “endangering” his family was not.

The self-proclaimed free speech absolutist added that his exact real-time location was shared, which amounts to “assassination coordinates” in a violation of Twitter’s terms of service.

“A time delay on reporting location that doesn’t put people at serious risk of being killed is fine.”

He rued that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would be pressed into action if anyone posted real-time locations and addresses of The Times reporters. “There’d be hearings on Capitol Hill and (Joe) Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!” tweeted the billionaire.

Amid his doxxing claims, liberal journalist Rupar denied posting anything related to Elon Jet or anything that could violate the policy about disclosing locations.

“Unless the policy is that you criticise Elon and you get banned,” he told CNN’s Oliver Darcy.

The Post’s Harwell questioned the Twitter chief’s commitment to free speech while he goes on to ban journalists for exercising the same. “I think that calls into question his commitment.”

NYT said in a statement: “We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”

Democratic member of congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined others in criticising Mr Musk for the abrupt suspension of journalists from his social media platform.

Pointing out that Mr Musk is a powerful public figure, the congresswoman said: “I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you.”

“Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone.”

“You first lol,” responded Mr Musk.