Twitter Suspends Accounts Of Several Journalists Covering Elon Musk's Takeover

Twitter suspended Thursday the accounts of several journalists who covered Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform without providing an explanation.

The suspended Twitter accounts belonged to Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Micah Lee of The Intercept, and Matt Binder from Mashable.

Independent journalists Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster and political commentator Keith Olbermann also appear to have been exiled from the platform, The Hill reported.

Musk appeared to claim that the journalists' accounts were suspended for violating Twitter's new rules against "doxxing."

"Same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else," Musk tweeted in response to a post about the suspensions.

"Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not," he said in another tweet.

Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for The New York Times, said they found Twitter's decision to suspend the journalists "questionable and unfortunate."

Stadtlander said they had not received any explanation from the platform regarding the suspension, and now urge Twitter to reinstate the accounts.

CNN, in a statement, said it is concerned about the latest move from Musk's Twitter, describing it as "impulsive and unjustified."

"Twitter's increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses the platform," CNN said.

The news outlet said that it has pressed Twitter to provide an explanation and plans to reevaluate its relationship with the platform based on the response.

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Lori Trahan assailed Twitter's decision, saying that the company previously told them "they're not going to retaliate against independent journalists or researchers" who are critical of Twitter.

The suspension spree came after Musk changed Twitter's rule on doxxing earlier this week.

The revised "private information and media policy" of the platform prohibits users from posting "live location information, including information shared on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URLs of travel routes, actual physical location or other identifying information that would reveal a person's location, regardless if this information is publicly available."

Musk introduced the new rule in his bid to suspend @ElonJet, a Twitter account dedicated to tracking the whereabouts of the billionaire's private jet.

The personal account of Jack Sweeney, who managed @ElonJet, was also suspended from Twitter.

Musk assured last month that he would not remove the jet-tracking account because of his commitment to free speech.

Twitter also removed the official account of its potential competitor, Mastodon, after it suggested that people could follow @ElonJet on its platform.

Musk also appeared to disable any links related to Mastodon after several accounts could not tweet with links directed to the platform.