Twitter suspends several prominent journalists, Elon Musk cites ‘doxxing’ of his jet
- Account suspensions included reporters from CNN, The New York Times, and Washington Post as well as independent journalists
- Suspended reporters have written about Twitter’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, and changes at the platform since he bought it
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 described 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.
“Criticising 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”.