Tech
Elon Musk Suspends Journalists Accounts On Twitter
(CTN NEWS) – Twitter has suspended the accounts of several well-known journalists who covered Elon Musk, including Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post.
Micha Lee of The Intercept, Matt Binder of Mashable, Aaron Rupar, and Tony Webster.
All of the journalists who have been suspended appear to have tweeted recently about Elon Musk’s efforts to impose stricter restrictions on the disclosure of his private jet’s location.
Reporters covering Elon Musk being nuked:
Donie O’Sullivan, @CNN
Drew Harwell, @washingtonpost
Ryan Mac, @nytimes
Aaron Rupar, independent pic.twitter.com/1x9oJijobA— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) December 16, 2022
Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, cited a policy change yesterday that forbade the publication of “current location information, including information provided on Twitter directly or links to third URL(s) of transport routes” in an email to The Verge.
Irwin wrote in the email, “Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that break our privacy policies and endanger other users.
Journalists and other accounts are not exempt from this rule,” according to the statement.
Elon Musk responded to a tweet about the circumstance later in the evening.
He wrote in the tweet, “They broadcast my exact real-time position, which is essentially assassination coordinates, in (apparent) direct violation of Twitter rules of service.”
They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Again, this was in response to links shared by these accounts to the ElonJet account, which routinely disseminates publicly accessible data about the private plane of Elon Musk’s flight path. (The passenger manifest is omitted.)
Climate activists commonly utilize accounts like ElonJet to highlight the severe environmental impact that private jets have.
CelebJet and RUOligarchJets have also been suspended.
Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Elon Musk have all faced criticism this year for utilizing aircraft when more environmentally friendly alternatives might be employed.
Elon Musk though has long objected to the live sharing of his private jet’s position. He even went so far as to make the @ElonJet account manager an offer of thousands of dollars to take the account offline at one point.
Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.
Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
He suggested in a tweet on Wednesday that a “crazy stalker” had used the account to locate and jump onto the bonnet of a car transporting one of his children.
Then, with the comment “Anyone recognize this person or car?” he tweeted a video of the claimed stalker and his license plate.
Anyone recognize this person or car? pic.twitter.com/2U0Eyx7iwl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
The @ElonJet account, Jack Sweeney’s account, and other accounts he operated that day were suspended by Twitter for exploiting publicly available data to track the positions of private jets.
Today, journalists tweeting about the incident were included in the enforcement’s increased vigilance.
Here is the message @donie sees now when he logs on to tweet. pic.twitter.com/N0Rv7icdhe
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) December 16, 2022
Additionally, it appears that some instances of the rival decentralized social network Mastodon are blocked from posting links on Twitter.
In particular, our tests revealed that when attempting to tweet URLs to Mastodon.social, Mastodon.lol, Mastodon.xyz, Mastodon.au, Mastodon.ie, Mastodon.scot, Mastodonapp.uk, Mastodon.world, and others, you’ll receive an error stating that
“we can’t finish this request because this link has been flagged by Twitter or our partners as being potentially hazardous.”
After tweeting a link to the ElonJet Mastodon account earlier today, Mastodon’s Twitter account was shut off.
One of the suspended reporters, Rupar, wrote to The Verge in an email, “I have not received any contacts from Twitter whatsoever, other than a notice at the top of my feed informing me that I am permanently banned and in read-only mode.”
— Ziff Davis (@ziffdavis) December 16, 2022
“I don’t know what may have sparked this,”
According to a post on his Substack, he noted in a tweet that day that “the ElonJet account that had been banned from Twitter was still active on Facebook and included a link to the Facebook page.”
Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for The New York Times, said in a statement that “neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred.
We anticipate that Twitter will reinstate all of the journalists’ accounts and give a convincing justification for its decision.”
CNN stated in a statement that it will “reevaluate” its relationship with Twitter based on the justification it receives for the ban, calling O’Sullivan’s suspension “concerning but not surprising.”
Statement on tonight's suspension of CNN's @donie O'Sullivan: pic.twitter.com/TQGsysxvpf
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 16, 2022
It doesn’t seem like the suspensions are just confined to journalists.
The Twitter account for ADS-B Exchange, which bills itself as “the world’s greatest source of open unblocked unfiltered flight data for hobbyists,” as well as commentator Keith Olbermann have both been suspended.
According to a WayBack Machine record, the account most recently quote-retweeted someone looking to locate Elon Musk ‘s jet.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
It doesn’t seem like the suspensions are just confined to journalists.
The Twitter account for ADS-B Exchange, which bills itself as “the world’s greatest source of open unblocked unfiltered flight data for hobbyists,” as well as commentator Keith Olbermann have both been suspended.
According to a WayBack Machine record, the account most recently quote-retweeted someone looking to locate Elon Musk s jet.
In the past, Elon Musk has promised to make Twitter a center for “free speech,” holding up the @ElonJet account as an example of what he would tolerate on the platform.
According to his tweet on November 6th, “my commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane.
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
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