Twitter Suspends Several US Journalists, Musk Cites ’Doxxing’ As Reason

By Staff, Agencies

Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who recently wrote about its new owner Elon Musk, with the billionaire tweeting that rules banning the publishing of personal information applied to all, including journalists.

Responding to a Tweet on the account suspensions, Musk, who has portrayed himself as a free speech absolutist, tweeted: "Same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else," a reference to Twitter rules banning the sharing of personal information, called doxxing.

Musk's tweet referred to Twitter's Wednesday suspension of @elonjet, an account tracking his private jet in real-time using data available in the public domain. Musk had threatened legal action against the account's operator, saying his son had been mistakenly followed by a "crazy stalker."

It was unclear if all the journalists whose accounts were suspended had commented on or shared news about @elonjet.

"Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not," Musk tweeted on Thursday.

He had tweeted last month that his commitment to free speech extended "even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk." He later tweeted there would be a seven-day suspension for doxxing.

He followed up on Thursday by posting a poll asking Twitter users to vote on when to reinstate accounts of those who had doxxed his "exact location in real-time."

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Among the journalist accounts suspended was that of Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell, who wrote on social media platform Mastodon that he had recently written about Musk and posted links to "publicly available, legally acquired data."

Sally Buzbee, the Post's executive editor, said Harwell's suspension undermined Musk's claims that he intended to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.

Twitter also suspended the official account of Mastodon, which has emerged as an alternative to Twitter since Musk bought it for $44 billion in October. Mastodon could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a move Musk said reflected his commitment to free speech, Musk reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, who had been suspended from Twitter over his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the US Capitol.