Musk reinstates journalists suspended after Twitter poll
Several high-profile journalists who were suspended from Twitter on Thursday night were reinstated early Saturday.
“The people have spoken” Elon Musk tweeted.
Twitter users voted in a poll posted by Musk to reinstate the accounts, which were terminated without warning. The new owner of social media platform has recently used Twitter polls for several high-profile decisions, including the reinstatement of former President Donald Trump’s account.
The accounts of The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, Mashable’s Matt Binder, The Intercept’s Micah Lee, Voice of America’s Steve Herman, and freelance journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster were suspended Thursday night.
“Matt Binder is back,” the Mashable journalist tweeted early Saturday morning.
Olbermann’s account appeared to remain suspended as of Saturday morning.
Musk had said The suspensions would last seven days, but early Saturday morning he said that “accounts that duplicated my location will have their suspension lifted now.”
He has accused journalists of sharing private information about his whereabouts, which he described as “basically murder coordinates.” NBC News was unable to verify that allegation.
“Doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That’s it,” Musk said Thursday night in a Twitter Space audio discussion, explaining his latest policy to more than 30,000 listeners.
he was referring to Twitter’s latest rule change on accounts that track private planesincluding one owned by Musk, which was filed Wednesday.
Several of the suspended reporters had been writing about the new policy and Musk’s rationale for imposing it, which involved his allegations about a bullying incident he said affected his family Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
He tweeted Wednesday that a car one of his sons was in was followed and blocked by a driver, who Musk said climbed on the hood of the car with his son inside.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Thursday that no police reports had been filed. Other law enforcement departments also cover parts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Musk said: “Any account that provides real-time location information of anyone will be suspended, as it is a breach of physical security. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location information.”
“Posting locations that someone traveled to with a slight delay is not a security issue, so that’s okay,” Musk added.
However, the accounts that were suspended did not tweet about the real-time location of the car Musk said his son was in. One of the banned accounts, “@elonjet,” previously tweeted flight data showing the location of Musk’s private plane. Some of the journalists who were banned had previously tweeted links to the account and other profiles run by creator Jack Sweeney, whose personal Twitter account was also suspended.
Flight data includes where a plane lands, but it doesn’t track a plane’s occupants outside of the plane itself, so it couldn’t be used to track the real-time location of Musk or his children if they weren’t on board or near the plane. plane.
The account of Mastodon, a platform that has become one of Twitter’s main competitors, was also suspended on Thursday, with links to Mastodon and other autonomous and decentralized networks blocked as “unsafe” links that could no longer be tweeted. .
Thursday’s suspensions were markedly criticized by free speech expertsY Musk cheerleaders and some conservative influencers joined the condemnation of the measure.
Musk had vowed to run Twitter as a free-speech absolutist and, since taking control, has reinstated it. accounts associated with the QAnon movement and other far-right groups but prohibited others.
It has also removed criticism of your company policies.
The Associated Press, david ingram Y jason abruzzese contributed.