Elon Musk reinstates journalists’ Twitter accounts after hearing from the public

For allegedly doxxing the microblogging platform’s owner, Elon Musk, about six journalists were expelled.

Elon Musk has restored the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day following a disagreement over the release of public information on the billionaire’s jet.

The extraordinary bans on Friday drew sharp criticism from government representatives, advocacy groups, and journalistic organisations from around the world; some said that the microblogging platform was endangering press freedom. The reinstatements followed those suspensions.

Elon Musk reinstates journalists’ Twitter accounts

Elon Musk later ran a Twitter survey, which revealed that the majority of the participants desired the accounts to be promptly restored.

“The people have spoken. The suspension of the accounts that doxxed my whereabouts has been lifted “Musk stated on Saturday in a tweet.

A request for comment from Reuters did not receive a response right away from Twitter. The accounts that had been suspended, including those of journalists from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, were found to have been reinstated after a review by Reuters.

EU representatives from France, Germany, Britain, and the United Kingdom earlier criticised the suspensions.

The episode, called the “Thursday Night Massacre” by one well-known security researcher, is seen by critics as fresh evidence that Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” silences users and abusive content.

As investors grew more worried about Musk’s propensity for distraction and the failing global economy, Tesla, an electric vehicle maker run by Musk, saw its stock plummet 4.7% on Friday and post its worst weekly loss since March 2020.

Roland Lescure, the French minister of industry, announced on Friday that he will quit using Twitter in response to Elon Musk’s decision to ban journalists.

The UN’s head of communications, Melissa Fleming, tweeted that “media freedom is not a toy” after the suspensions left her “extremely disturbed.”

The German Foreign Office sent Twitter a warning that it was troubled by activities that endangered journalistic freedom.

ELONJET

The suspensions were the consequence of an argument over the ElonJet Twitter account, which followed Musk’s private plane using information that was easily accessible.

Elon Musk Jet was among the accounts that Twitter suspended on Wednesday, despite Musk’s earlier statement in which he said that he would not do so in the name of free speech.

Within a short period, Twitter modified its privacy policies to forbid the dissemination of “live location information.”

Then, on Thursday night, several journalists, including those from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, had their Twitter accounts abruptly stopped.

Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, claimed in an email to Reuters overnight that the staff personally checked “any users” that posted direct links to the ElonJet account in violation of the new privacy policy.

Irwin wrote in the email, “I recognise that the emphasis appears to be mostly on journalist accounts, but we implemented the policy equally to journalists and non-journalist accounts today.

The First Amendment’s spirit and the idea that social media platforms will permit the unfiltered spread of information that is already in the public square are violated, according to a statement released on Friday by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.

For his family, Elon Musk claimed that the journalists had posted his real-time position, which is “essentially assassination coordinates.”

The billionaire briefly participated in a journalist-hosted Twitter Spaces audio conference, which swiftly devolved into a heated debate over whether the journalists had disclosed Musk’s real-time position in violation of the regulation.

“Doxing results in suspension. Story over, “In answer to inquiries, Musk stated several times. Private information about someone is published, frequently with malevolent intent, and is referred to as “doxing.”

One of the journalists who had been suspended but was still able to participate in the audio chat, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, disputed the idea that by sharing a link to ElonJet, he had revealed Musk or his family’s precise location.

The Spaces chat’s host, BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos, tweeted shortly after that the audio session had ended abruptly and that no tape was available.

Elon Musk explained what transpired in a tweet “A bug in Legacy is being fixed. should report to work on Monday.”

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