Twitter Suspends Journalists’ Accounts, Some of Whom Wrote About Musk

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter suspended the accounts of roughly half a dozen journalists on Thursday, the newest change by the social media service beneath its new proprietor, Elon Musk.

The accounts suspended included Ryan Mac of The New York Instances; Drew Harwell of The Washington Submit; Aaron Rupar, an unbiased journalist; Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Matt Binder of Mashable; Tony Webster, an unbiased journalist; and the political journalist Keith Olbermann. It was unclear what the suspensions had in frequent; every person’s Twitter web page included a message that mentioned it was suspended for “violating the Twitter guidelines.”

The strikes got here a day after Twitter suspended greater than 25 accounts that tracked the planes of presidency businesses, billionaires and high-profile people. Lots of the accounts have been operated by Jack Sweeney, a 20-year-old faculty pupil and flight monitoring fanatic who had used Twitter to put up updates in regards to the location of Mr. Musk’s personal aircraft utilizing publicly obtainable data.

Final month, Mr. Musk had mentioned he would enable the account that tracked his personal aircraft to stay on Twitter, although he mentioned it amounted to a safety risk. “My dedication to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my aircraft, despite the fact that that may be a direct private security danger,” he mentioned in a tweet on the time.

However he modified his thoughts this week, after he claimed a automobile by which one in every of his sons was touring was accosted by a “loopy stalker.” On Wednesday, Mr. Musk tweeted that any account that posted “real-time location information of anybody might be suspended, as it’s a bodily security violation. This consists of posting hyperlinks to websites with real-time location information.”

A number of the journalists whose accounts have been suspended had written in regards to the accounts that tracked the personal planes or had tweeted about these accounts. Some have additionally written articles which were important of Mr. Musk and his possession of Twitter.

Mr. Musk didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark and Twitter didn’t reply to an e-mail for remark.

“Tonight’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of quite a lot of distinguished journalists, together with The New York Instances’s Ryan Mac, is questionable and unlucky,” mentioned Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for The Instances. “Neither The Instances nor Ryan have obtained any rationalization about why this occurred. We hope that the entire journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter gives a satisfying rationalization for this motion.”

Representatives for The Submit, CNN and Mashable didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

“I used to be dissatisfied to see that I used to be suspended from Twitter with out rationalization,” Mr. Webster, whose account was suspended, mentioned in an emailed remark. He added that he had tweeted in regards to the Twitter account that tracked Mr. Musk’s personal aircraft earlier than his suspension.

After his suspension from Twitter, Mr. Sweeney turned to Mastodon, an alternate social community. After Mastodon used Twitter to advertise Mr. Sweeney’s new account on Thursday, Twitter suspended Mastodon’s account. As some journalists shared the information of Mastodon’s suspension, their very own accounts have been suspended.

Mr. Musk, who bought Twitter in October for $44 billion, had mentioned that his takeover would develop free speech on the platform and permit extra individuals to take part within the public dialog. In latest weeks, he allowed some banned customers to return to the platform, together with former President Donald J. Trump, who was barred from his account after the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill.

“I hope that even my worst critics stay on Twitter, as a result of that’s what free speech means,” Mr. Musk tweeted in April, shortly after asserting his intent to purchase the corporate.