Elon Musk has reactivated several journalists' Twitter accounts, which had been suspended for a day due to a controversy over the publication of public data about the billionaire's plane.
The reinstatements came after the unprecedented suspensions drew harsh criticism on Friday from government officials, advocacy groups, and journalism organizations around the world, with some claiming the microblogging platform was jeopardizing press freedom.
A later Twitter poll conducted by Musk revealed that the majority of respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately.
“The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
There were on comments on the matter avalable from Twitter.
According to Reuters, the suspended accounts, which included journalists from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, have since been restored.
French, German, British, and European Union officials had previously condemned the suspensions.
The incident, dubbed the "Thursday Night Massacre" by one well-known security researcher, is being viewed as new evidence of Musk, who considers himself a "free speech absolutist," eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes.
Tesla shares fell 4.7% on Friday and posted their worst weekly loss since March 2020, as investors became increasingly concerned about Musk's distraction and the slowing global economy.
The French minister of industry, Roland Lescure, tweeted on Friday that, in response to Musk's suspension of journalists, he would suspend his own Twitter activity.
The United Nations' head of communications, Melissa Fleming, tweeted that the suspensions were "deeply disturbing" and that "media freedom is not a toy."
The German Foreign Office warned Twitter that moves that jeopardized press freedom were unacceptable.
The suspensions were the result of a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which used publicly available information to track Musk's private plane.
Despite Musk's previous tweet saying he would not suspend ElonJet in the name of free speech, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets on Wednesday.
Twitter's privacy policy was soon changed to prohibit the sharing of "live location information."
Then, on Thursday evening, several journalists, including those from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, were abruptly suspended from Twitter.
Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said in an email to Reuters overnight that the team manually reviewed "any and all accounts" that violated the new privacy policy by posting direct links to the ElonJet account.
“I understand that the focus seems to be mainly on journalist accounts, but we applied the policy equally to journalists and non-journalist accounts today,” Irwin said in the email.
According to the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, Twitter's actions "violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow the unfiltered distribution of information that is already in the public square," according to a statement issued on Friday.
Musk accused journalists of publishing his current location, which he described as "basically assassination coordinates" for his family.
The billionaire briefly appeared in a Twitter Spaces audio chat hosted by journalists, which quickly devolved into a heated debate over whether the suspended journalists had actually exposed Musk's real-time location in violation of the policy.
“If you dox, you get suspended. End of story,” Musk said repeatedly in response to questions. “Dox” is a term for publishing private information about someone, usually with malicious intent.
Drew Harwell of the Washington Post, one of the journalists suspended but able to participate in the audio chat, pushed back against the notion that he had exposed Musk or his family's exact location by posting a link to ElonJet.
Soon after, BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos, who hosted the Spaces chat, tweeted that the audio session had been abruptly cut off and that the recording was no longer available.
Musk explained what happened in a tweet, saying, "We're fixing a Legacy bug. "I should be at work tomorrow."
(Source:www.aljazeera.com)
The reinstatements came after the unprecedented suspensions drew harsh criticism on Friday from government officials, advocacy groups, and journalism organizations around the world, with some claiming the microblogging platform was jeopardizing press freedom.
A later Twitter poll conducted by Musk revealed that the majority of respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately.
“The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
There were on comments on the matter avalable from Twitter.
According to Reuters, the suspended accounts, which included journalists from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, have since been restored.
French, German, British, and European Union officials had previously condemned the suspensions.
The incident, dubbed the "Thursday Night Massacre" by one well-known security researcher, is being viewed as new evidence of Musk, who considers himself a "free speech absolutist," eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes.
Tesla shares fell 4.7% on Friday and posted their worst weekly loss since March 2020, as investors became increasingly concerned about Musk's distraction and the slowing global economy.
The French minister of industry, Roland Lescure, tweeted on Friday that, in response to Musk's suspension of journalists, he would suspend his own Twitter activity.
The United Nations' head of communications, Melissa Fleming, tweeted that the suspensions were "deeply disturbing" and that "media freedom is not a toy."
The German Foreign Office warned Twitter that moves that jeopardized press freedom were unacceptable.
The suspensions were the result of a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which used publicly available information to track Musk's private plane.
Despite Musk's previous tweet saying he would not suspend ElonJet in the name of free speech, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets on Wednesday.
Twitter's privacy policy was soon changed to prohibit the sharing of "live location information."
Then, on Thursday evening, several journalists, including those from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, were abruptly suspended from Twitter.
Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said in an email to Reuters overnight that the team manually reviewed "any and all accounts" that violated the new privacy policy by posting direct links to the ElonJet account.
“I understand that the focus seems to be mainly on journalist accounts, but we applied the policy equally to journalists and non-journalist accounts today,” Irwin said in the email.
According to the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, Twitter's actions "violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow the unfiltered distribution of information that is already in the public square," according to a statement issued on Friday.
Musk accused journalists of publishing his current location, which he described as "basically assassination coordinates" for his family.
The billionaire briefly appeared in a Twitter Spaces audio chat hosted by journalists, which quickly devolved into a heated debate over whether the suspended journalists had actually exposed Musk's real-time location in violation of the policy.
“If you dox, you get suspended. End of story,” Musk said repeatedly in response to questions. “Dox” is a term for publishing private information about someone, usually with malicious intent.
Drew Harwell of the Washington Post, one of the journalists suspended but able to participate in the audio chat, pushed back against the notion that he had exposed Musk or his family's exact location by posting a link to ElonJet.
Soon after, BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos, who hosted the Spaces chat, tweeted that the audio session had been abruptly cut off and that the recording was no longer available.
Musk explained what happened in a tweet, saying, "We're fixing a Legacy bug. "I should be at work tomorrow."
(Source:www.aljazeera.com)
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