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Friday, December 16, 2022

Twitter Suspends Reporters Accounts Over Doxxing

Daily Mail Composite 12/16/22

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.

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 the political journalist Keith Olbermann.

Responding to a Tweet on the account suspensions, Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, tweeted: 



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, reports Reuters.

"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 tweeted on Thursday that there would be a seven-day suspension for doxxing, following that up with a poll asking Twitter users to vote on when to reinstate the doxxed accounts.

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