Twitter has suspended the accounts of several journalists who have been covering Elon Musk.
On Thursday, reporters from The New York Times, CNN and Washington Post were seemingly locked out of their accounts on the social media platform.
The list also included independent journalists Aaron Rupa and Tony Webster, after articles were published regarding the tech mogul’s ban of a Twitter account which shared data about the movements of his private jet.
In a tweet, Mr Musk confirmed the suspension related to the live sharing of location data.
He said: “Criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.
“Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7-day suspension.”
Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Iriwin also told The Verge that the bans relate to a new rule which prohibits the live sharing of location data.
“Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk,” she said.
“We don’t make exceptions to this policy for journalists or any other accounts.”
Following the suspension, CNN said it would “re-evaluate our relationship” with the platform while the New York Times called the suspensions “questionable and unfortunate”.
The European Union said Twitter coukd face sanctions under a future media law after the journalists were suspended.
The move came after the account, @ElonJet, was suspended on Wednesday after using publicly available flight-tracking information to tweet every time Mr Musk’s jet took off and landed.
