Several journalists who cowl the tech business – and, consequently, Musk’s takeover of Twitter and its ensuing quickly altering insurance policies – had their accounts suspended early on Friday with out rationalization.
Accounts belonging to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, the New York Times‘ Ryan Mac, the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and several other different tech journalists had been all abruptly suspended.
“Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech. I think that calls into question his commitment,” Harwell instructed CNN.
The account of progressive impartial journalist Aaron Rupar was additionally banned.
He later wrote he had been given no rationalization for the transfer.
“I did publish a newsletter Wednesday morning featuring an article from Noah Berlatsky about Elon Musk’s reactionary populism. I also posted a tweet late last night noting that Musk seemed to violate Twitter’s policy against posting footage of someone without their consent in a tweet he posted yesterday.
“But it is onerous to think about how both of these issues violated Twitter’s insurance policies.”
Following the suspensions, Musk tweeted that “criticising me all day lengthy is completely positive, however doxxing my real-time location and endangering my household just isn’t”.
There is no evidence of any of the suspended journalists doing that.
Musk has claimed to be a free speech advocate, tweeting in April of this year – before his takeover of the site was completed – that he hoped “that even my worst critics stay on Twitter, as a result of that’s what free speech means”.
However, under his ownership, the social media platform has appeared to move in the opposite direction, seemingly cracking down on voices critical of the billionaire.
Today’s suspensions came after Twitter shut down an account belonging to Mastodon, an emerging competitor that many users have been flocking to since Musk’s takeover.
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