December 2022 Twitter suspensions

Last updated

Twitter suspension of journalists
Journalists Suspended.webp
Three journalists suspended on Twitter [1]
DateDecember 15, 2022
Location Twitter
Also known asTwitter journalist purge
Type Account suspensions
Theme Twitter censorship
CauseTwitter Safety policy change
Motive Doxxing response
Target Journalists
Perpetrator Elon Musk
Organised byElon Musk and Twitter
Outcome ElonJet and 10 journalists suspended including Steven L. Herman, Donie O'Sullivan, Linette Lopez and Keith Olbermann

On December 15, 2022, Twitter suspended the accounts of ten journalists who have covered the company and its owner, Elon Musk. They included reporters Keith Olbermann, Steven L. Herman, and Donie O'Sullivan, and journalists from The New York Times , The Washington Post , CNN, and The Intercept . [2] [3] [4] [5] The suspensions came after an incident that occurred on December 14, when Musk's 2-year-old son was followed by a stalker while he was traveling in a car, the stalker thought Musk was in the car. [6] Musk said the accounts had violated a policy on doxxing. Posters on behalf of the owners of the accounts were quick to claim that the suspensions were permanent [2] [3] [5] before Musk clarified account access would be restricted for seven days. [2] [3] [5] Some of the accounts were restored earlier. [7] [8]

Contents

Twitter officials initially offered no explanation for their decision. [2] They later stated it was due to violations of a new rule, created one day before the bans took place. The policy change prohibited accounts from sharing real-time flight information of private jets. [2] [3] [9] The bans were allegedly in response to the @ElonJet account, which tracks Musk's private jet. The account and other similar accounts were suspended from Twitter on December 14, 2022, but continued operating on Facebook, Mastodon, and other social media platforms. [3] [10] [11]

Several of the suspended journalists said they had not violated the rule, and while some had included links to @ElonJet in their articles or reported about the account, it was already suspended at the time of media reports. [2] [4] [5] The Twitter account of Mastodon –a rival social-media platform –was also suspended on December 15 after linking to @ElonJet on a Mastodon server. [5] Users were unable to share Mastodon links in their tweets [3] and they were labeled as "potentially harmful" and containing "malware". [12] [13]

Musk wrote of the suspensions that "same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else" [2] [14] and "you doxx, you get banned. End of story." [15] [3] [4] Musk ran two informal Twitter polls, asking followers when the accounts should be restored. In both cases, a majority of users said it should happen immediately. On December 16, following those polls, Musk reinstated several of the accounts, [7] [8] though others remained suspended and some journalists were told their accounts would not be restored unless they deleted certain posts, [16] [8] as outlined in the Twitter enforcement policy. [17]

The suspensions drew criticism from various organizations and individuals. [2] [15] Some said the actions undermined Musk's repeated claims of supporting free speech on Twitter, while others said Musk had a history of doxxing and harassing people in similar ways, which he was now criticizing. [2] [18] The suspensions were condemned by representatives of several countries and organizations, including the United Nations and the European Union. [15] [19] EU officials said the actions may have violated the Digital Services Act, which could result in sanctions or even a ban of Twitter in Europe. [4] [16] The Government Accountability Project filed a complaint to the United States Congress regarding the suspensions. [20]

Background

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk

November 7, 2022 [21]

Business magnate Elon Musk purchased the social media company Twitter for $44 billion on October 27, 2022, following a lengthy process that began when Musk made the initial purchase offer on April 14, 2022, then later rescinded the deal after it was accepted. The company sued Musk to compel him to honor his offer, and although Musk had intended to fight in court, he reversed course. [22] [23] Upon acquiring Twitter, Musk fired several top executives, [24] fired half of the workforce, [22] and proposed changes to the platform, such as removal of spambots and open-sourcing Twitter's algorithms. [23]

One of Musk's primary pledges upon acquiring Twitter was promoting free speech. He was previously concerned that Twitter was censoring conservative viewpoints, and said the platform would allow all legal speech. [2] [15] [14] He has described himself as a "free speech absolutist". [15] [25] Acting on this conviction, Musk then restored several accounts that were permanently suspended before his purchase, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, [14] whose account @realDonaldTrump had been suspended for tweets that allegedly helped incite the January 6 United States Capitol attack. [26] [27]

X logo 2023.svg
Safety Twitter
@Safety

We've updated our Private Information policy to prohibit sharing someone else's live location in most cases. Here's what changed and why. 🧵

December 14, 2022 [28]

Before the Twitter account suspensions of December 14 and 15, 2022, Musk shared concerns about the accounts that tracked his jet. [3] Specifically, he criticized the Internet bot account @ElonJet, which used publicly-available flight data to track trips taken by Musk's private plane. The account, which was started by a college student named Jack Sweeney, [4] [11] [10] [29] had more than 500,000 followers as of December 2022. [9] [11] [29] Sweeney also ran a version of the bot on the social networking platform Instagram. [29] In January 2022, before Musk had purchased Twitter, he privately offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account. Sweeney rejected the offer and asked for $50,000, to which Musk did not agree. [11] [14] [29] After Musk purchased Twitter, Sweeney cited screenshots provided by a Twitter employee, indicating the company limited the reach of the @ElonJet account, though he said those restrictions were later removed. [11] [29] In November 2022, Musk publicly stated that he would not ban @ElonJet, despite claiming the account "is a direct personal safety risk", because of his "commitment to free speech". [15] [3] [11] [29]

Account suspensions

Twitter policy changes

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

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.

Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.

December 15, 2022 [30]

On December 14, 2022, the social media platform created the new rule that was used to ban accounts publishing the real-time location and movement of private jets. [3] Specifically, Twitter's private information and media policy was modified to include a clause prohibiting the sharing of live location data, stating "we will remove any tweets or accounts that share someone's live location". [11] The word "jet" does not appear anywhere in the Twitter policy but according to CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan the rules "appeared to be designed specifically to justify the removal of the jet-tracking account". [11]

Twitter's official @TwitterSafety account issued messages about the policy change, writing that they would remove tweets that posted live location information and suspend accounts dedicated to doing so. They clarified that users were allowed to share their own live location and the "historical" location of someone else, but "not same-day" information. [10] Musk himself also tweeted about the new policy on December 14. [14] [11]

Suspension of flight-tracking accounts

@elonjet account suspended on X Elonjet.png
@elonjet account suspended on X

The same day the new rule was implemented, Twitter suspended the @ElonJet account, as well as the personal account of its creator (@JxckSweeney). [9] [11] [29] Other similar accounts were also suspended, [9] [10] including some that followed the planes of other billionaires such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Some of these had also been operated by Sweeney, [9] [10] who defended himself, telling NBC News: "All I'm doing is taking their data and putting it on Twitter. There's nothing I'm doing wrong, and I didn't mean any harm." [9]

On December 14, Musk said that a car carrying one of his children had been followed by a "crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood". [2] [9] [10] In the same tweet, Musk said he would be taking legal action against Sweeney and "organizations who supported harm to my family" as a result of the alleged altercation. [10] [14] Musk publicly posted video footage of a man who he said was the person that had been involved in this incident. The man in the video was also using his smartphone to record whoever was filming him, and Musk included the man's license plate in the video clip, asking his followers if anyone recognized him. [2] The South Pasadena police were called to the scene, but no report had been filed. [2] They found no link to suggest the ElonJet account had contributed to the confrontation. [31] The department believes the suspect is a member of Musk's security team. [32]

Suspension of journalist accounts

On December 15, 2022, the social networking service Twitter suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists who routinely reported on the platform and its owner and CEO, Elon Musk. These journalists included: [2] [3] [4] [5]

JournalistTwitter HandleOrganization
Matt Binder@mattbinder Mashable
Drew Harwell@drewharwell The Washington Post
Steven L. Herman @W7VOA Voice of America
Micah Lee@micahflee The Intercept
Ryan Mac@rmac18 The New York Times
Donie O'Sullivan @donie CNN
Linette Lopez @lopezlinette Business Insider
Keith Olbermann @keitholbermann Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Aaron Rupar@atruparfreelance
Tony Webster@websterfreelance

Additionally, the Twitter account for Mastodon (@joinmastodon), a competitor of Twitter, was also suspended on December 15, [3] [5] and users were unable to post any links to some of the most popular Mastodon servers in their tweets. [3] Twitter did not initially state why the Mastodon account was suspended or if specific rules had been broken, but earlier in the day, they had linked to one of Sweeney's ElonJet accounts hosted on the Mastodon platform. [14] Although Mastodon's account was suspended and its links were blocked, the term "Mastodon" was a trending topic following the changes. [3] It was not initially clear if the ban would be permanent, although Musk later clarified that the suspension would last for seven days. [2] [3] [5] Other journalist accounts were also suspended after December 15. Susan Li (@SusanLiTV), a television journalist with Fox Business Network, was suspended on December 16 after posting a link to an aircraft tracking website in an attempt to demonstrate the ease at which Musk's jet could be tracked using public data. [16] The account of Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) was suspended on December 17 for "prior doxxing action", but was quickly restored. [33] [34]

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

Same doxxing rules apply to "journalists" as to everyone else

December 16, 2022 [35]

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not

December 16, 2022 [36]

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service

December 16, 2022 [37]

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

7 day suspension for doxxing. Some time away from Twitter is good for the soul ...

December 16, 2022 [38]

Explanation from Twitter and Musk

Musk publicly responded to the journalist suspensions a few hours after they occurred. [2] He said the accounts were suspended for doxxing, [2] [3] specifically in violation of Twitter's new rule banning accounts that track the location and movement of private jets. That new rule was created on December 14, 2022, the day before the journalist accounts were suspended, in response to accounts that provided information about Musk's private jet. [3] [9] Musk said the suspended accounts posted his "exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service". [2] [25] [3]

Musk defended his actions in a series of tweets. In one, he wrote: "Same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else". [2] In another, he wrote: "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not." [3] [5] Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, told Reuters that the organization manually reviewed "any and all accounts" in violation of the policy, which included posting links to @ElonJet. She said: "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." [15]

A few hours after the suspensions, Musk defended the action during a discussion on Twitter Spaces, a social audio feature of the platform, which was hosted by BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos and had more than 30,000 listeners. Several of the suspended journalists as well as the creator of the @ElonJet account participated, and were able to join due to a bug that allowed suspended accounts to join Twitter Spaces. During the conversation, Musk repeatedly said, "You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it." [15] [3] [4] Drew Harwell, one of the suspended journalists, was able to dialogue with Musk about the suspensions briefly, however, Musk left the chat a few minutes after joining, and the Twitter Spaces service was abruptly shut down, disconnecting all the users in Notopoulos's space. Musk later said Twitter Spaces was temporarily unavailable due to a "legacy bug" and that it "should be working tomorrow". [3] The Twitter Spaces feature remained offline for several hours, although several users, including the conversation's host, found themselves suspended from the service once it became available again. [39]

Following the Mastodon account suspension and ban on sending Mastodon links, [12] a new policy was introduced on December 18 that prohibited sharing of links to a variety of social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram, along with Mastodon. The new Twitter policy would have disallowed such links in tweets and on account profiles, and would trigger suspensions of accounts in violation of this rule. [40] [41] [42] By December 19, Twitter's new linking policy and official mentions about it had been removed, [43] [44] and Musk would later mention that banning users for posting Mastodon links was a mistake. [45]

Reinstatement of some accounts

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
Now
 
43%
Tomorrow
 
4.5%
7 days from now
 
14.4%
Longer
 
38.1%
535,233 votes · Final results

December 16, 2022 [46]

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
Now
 
58.7%
In 7 days
 
41.3%
3,690,639 votes · Final results

December 16, 2022 [47]

On December 15, Musk issued a Twitter poll asking when the suspensions should be lifted. Musk had previously made a similar poll where the majority had voted to reinstate Trump's account, with Musk saying, "The people have spoken... Vox Populi, Vox Dei". [14] However, Forbes wrote that it is unclear whether these unscientific polls truly inform or influence Musk. [14] Musk's poll had four options, and while a majority voted for 7 days or longer, a plurality (43%) voted for immediate reinstatement. Musk then wrote in a response tweet, "Sorry too many options. Will redo poll", and issued a new poll. [14] The second poll asked users whether he should "unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time", and provided only two options "Now" or "In 7 days". The final result was "Now", [16] [18] with about 59 percent choosing that option. [16] [48]

On December 17, Musk said he would reinstate most of the suspended accounts, [16] [8] writing of the poll results, "The people have spoken". [16] However, some accounts were not restored. Linette Lopez, who had previously published investigations into Tesla, Inc., where Musk also worked as CEO, remained suspended on Twitter and had not heard anything from the platform about possible reinstatement. [16] [48] Several of the journalists said account restoration appeared to be contingent on the voluntary deletion of specific posts. Drew Harwell was told his account would be restored if he deleted tweets on the suspension of Mastodon's account. [16] [8] Steven L. Herman said his account is now visible to others, but he cannot use it because he won't delete three tweets that Twitter claimed were sharing Musk's location. Herman said: "I am in a new level of purgatory. I do not believe anything I have tweeted violate any reasonable standard of any social media platform." [48] Micah Lee also said that, while his account was technically reinstated, he was still locked out unless he agreed to delete some of his past tweets. Lee called the claim that his suspension was lifted "an illusion". [49]

Responses

Suspended journalists

The journalists were not initially told if their accounts had been permanently or temporarily suspended, and were not informed why they had been blocked or what specific rule was violated. [2] [25] [4] Immediately after the suspension, Rupar said he was given no information about why the action occurred, [2] [4] saying he hadn't "been given a reason, explanation, or been looped in about any possible duration." [2] Rupar added that he "didn't post anything remotely controversial today or anytime recently". [2] Micah Lee also said he was not given a reason for the suspension, but said it came shortly after he posted on Twitter about Mastodon's account suspension. [25] Lee also wrote: "While my reporting may not have provided the direct impetus for my suspension, it's clear Musk was taking aim specifically at journalists who have covered him critically." [25] Olbermann's suspension occurred shortly after he had criticized the suspension of other journalists. [2] Rupar's suspension came one day after he had shared a Substack article by Noah Berlatsky that was critical of Musk, entitled "Elon Musk's reactionary populism". [5] [50] After Musk's explanation about the suspensions, Aaron Rupar said he had not posted anything that violated the policy about disclosing locations, and had never posted anything about @ElonJet prior to his suspension, adding: "Unless the policy is that you criticize Elon and you get suspended." [5]

Some of the suspended journalists had written stories about Musk suspending @ElonJet, [4] though others had not. Matt Binder said he did not share any location data or links to jet-tracking accounts, and was suspended immediately after sharing a screenshot that Donie O'Sullivan posted before his own suspension. Binder said, "I have been highly critical of Musk but never broke any of Twitter's listed policies." [48] Linette Lopez said of her suspension: "Its funny that Elon suddenly has a problem with doxxing and harassing people because he [also] has a history of doing that ..." [18] Drew Harwell said he did not share information about Musk's private jet or personal location, but simply posted a link to the @ElonJet account in his stories. [15] [4] In a direct conversation with Musk on Twitter Spaces, Harwell said: "We have to acknowledge you are using the same exact link-blocking technique that you have criticized as part of the Hunter Biden–New York Post story in 2020." [25] [4] In an interview with CNN, Harwell stated: "Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech. I think that calls into question his commitment." [5]

Other commentators

New York Times external communications director Charlie Stadtlander said that the suspensions were "questionable and unfortunate", and that neither their organization nor Times journalist Ryan Mac were provided an adequate explanation for the decision to suspend the accounts. [1] Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said the suspensions occurred "without warning, process, or explanation" and that they "directly undermined Elon Musk's claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech". [51] CNN stated that Musk's actions were "impulsive and unjustified" but "not surprising", and that it would reevaluate its relationship with Twitter. The CNN statement also said: "Twitter's increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter." [48] Oliver Darcy, a CNN reporter, wrote that Musk's allegations of doxxing were "not what those journalists did". [2] Cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs said Twitter's claim that Mastodon links might have malware was a "bald-faced lie". [48] Lou Paskalis, a media executive, said the suspensions could create uncertainty among news organizations and advertisers. Paskalis said the bans were "the biggest self-inflicted wound I can think of". [48]

Commentators have been critical of the suspensions, including media outlets and international representatives, [2] [15] officials from several countries, the United Nations and European Union. [15] Many critics said the actions undermined Musk's claims of supporting free speech. [2] The suspensions were labeled by Alex Stamos, a security researcher, and Micah Lee from The Intercept, as the "Thursday Night Massacre". [25] [7] [4] [15]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Official Portrait (square).jpg
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Twitter
@AOC

You're a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one.

I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you.

Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone.

December 16, 2022 [52]

Elon Musk Royal Society (crop2).jpg
Elon Musk Twitter
@elonmusk

They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service

December 16, 2022 [53]

United Nations spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said she was disturbed by the bans and that "media freedom is not a toy". [15] Stephane Dujarric, another UN spokesperson, said they were reconsidering their involvement with Twitter, and that the suspensions set "a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even worse". [48] U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote public tweets directly to Musk, saying the suspensions were irresponsible actions, and that they only increase the scrutiny around him, adding that he should "lay off the proto-fascism." [54] Věra Jourová, the Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, said on December 16 that "news about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying." [4]

European Commission officials said Musk's actions may have violated the Digital Services Act, which could result in sanctions or even a ban on the social media platform across all of Europe. [4] [16] Johannes Bahrke, of the European Commission, said it was encouraging that some journalists were reinstated, but was concerned about Musk using informal Twitter polls to make such decisions rather than through a clearly-defined framework. [16]

Roland Lescure, the French Minister of Commerce, ceased all of his Twitter activity in protest. [15] The German Foreign Office warned that the suspensions jeopardize press freedom. [15] The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing said 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". [15]

Bari Weiss, who worked with Musk to publish the Twitter Files, disagreed and argued with Musk on Twitter about his decision, stating "the old regime at Twitter [was] governed by its own whims and biases...[and] it sure looks like the new regime has the same problem". [48] [55] [56] On December 16, Wired reporter Amanda Hoover quoted John Davisson, a senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, saying "Musk is responding to events that affect him personally to reshape that policy and place new limits on what could be disseminated through the platform..." [57] Hoover concluded that "This new approach will have a lasting impact on Twitter." [57]

The Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection and advocacy organization, filed a complaint to the United States Congress on December 22, saying Musk "abused his authority by acting arbitrarily and capriciously" in suspending the journalists. David Seide, senior counsel with the organization, called the actions "disturbing" and urged Congress to "review this mistreatment" and investigate further. [20] Brendan Carr, an FCC commissioner, said that "one person should not get to decide who participates in the digital town square". [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elon Musk</span> Businessman (born 1971)

Elon Reeve Musk is a businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO, product architect and former chairman of Tesla, Inc.; owner, chairman and CTO of X Corp.; founder of the Boring Company and xAI; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the Musk Foundation. He is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$232 billion as of December 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $254 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX.

Vox populi is a Latin phrase that literally means "voice of the people". It is used in English in the meaning "the opinion of the majority of the people". In journalism, vox pop or man on the street refers to short interviews with members of the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven L. Herman</span> American journalist

Steven L. Herman is a journalist and author, and, as of June 2022, Voice of America's chief national correspondent. From 2017 through 2021, Herman was senior White House correspondent and subsequently VOA's White House bureau chief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twitter</span> American social networking service

X, formerly, and still colloquially, known as Twitter, and also Twitter/X, is a social media website based in the United States. With over 500 million users, it is one of the world's largest social networks. Users can share and post text messages, images, and videos known historically as "tweets". X also includes direct messaging, video and audio calling, bookmarks, lists and communities, and Spaces, a social audio feature. Users can vote on context added by approved users using the Community Notes feature. Although the service is now called X, the primary URL remains twitter.com as of January 2024, with the x.com domain name redirecting to that address.

Censorship of X, formerly and commonly called Twitter, refers to Internet censorship by governments that block access to X. X censorship also includes governmental notice and take down requests to X, which X enforces in accordance with its Terms of Service when a government or authority submits a valid removal request to X indicating that specific content is illegal in their jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mastodon (social network)</span> Self-hosted social network software

Mastodon is a free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services. It has microblogging features similar to Twitter, which are offered by a large number of independently run nodes, known as instances or servers, each with its own code of conduct, terms of service, privacy policy, privacy options, and content moderation policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media use by Donald Trump</span>

Donald Trump's use of social media attracted attention worldwide since he joined Twitter in May 2009. Over nearly twelve years, Trump tweeted around 57,000 times, including about 8,000 times during the 2016 election campaign and over 25,000 times during his presidency. The White House said the tweets should be considered official statements. When Twitter banned Trump from the platform in January 2021 during the final days of his term, his handle @realDonaldTrump had over 88.9 million followers. On November 19, 2022, Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, reinstated his account, although Trump has stated he will not use it in favor of his own social media platform, Truth Social. The first tweet since 2021 was made in August 2023 about his mugshot from Fulton County Jail, but the account has since remained inactive.

X, formerly and commonly called Twitter, may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile accounts often attract media attention, and Twitter's use of suspensions has been controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deplatforming</span> Administrative or political action to deny access to a platform to express opinions

Deplatforming, also known as no-platforming, has been defined as an "attempt to boycott a group or individual through removing the platforms used to share information or ideas", or "the action or practice of preventing someone holding views regarded as unacceptable or offensive from contributing to a forum or debate, especially by blocking them on a particular website."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vijaya Gadde</span> American business executive (born 1974)

Vijaya Gadde is an American attorney, who served as general counsel and the head of legal, policy, and trust at Twitter. Her role included handling issues such as harassment, misinformation, and harmful speech, and other decisions made by Twitter. On October 27, 2022, she was fired by Elon Musk, following his acquisition of Twitter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taylor Lorenz</span> American technology reporter

Taylor Lorenz is an American journalist. She is a columnist for The Washington Post. She was previously a technology reporter for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and Business Insider, and social media editor for the Daily Mail. She is particularly known for covering Internet culture.

Elon Musk is the CEO or owner of multiple companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp, has expressed many views on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from politics to science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donie O'Sullivan (journalist)</span> Irish journalist

Donie O'Sullivan is an Irish journalist working for CNN in New York.

Truth Social is an alt-tech social media platform created by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), an American media and technology company founded in October 2021 by former US president Donald Trump. It has been called a "Twitter clone" that competes with Parler, Gab, and Mastodon in trying to provide an alternative to Twitter and Facebook. Truth Social uses Mastodon as its backend.

Jack Sweeney is an American programmer and entrepreneur. In 2022, he became known for creating Twitter bots to track the private jets of Russian oligarchs and other prominent individuals, including Elon Musk, through the ElonJet account.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libs of TikTok</span> Far-right and anti-LGBT Twitter account

Libs of TikTok is a handle for various far-right and anti-LGBT social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent. Raichik uses the accounts to repost content created by left-wing and LGBT people on TikTok, and on other social-media platforms, often with hostile, mocking, or derogatory commentary. The accounts promote hate speech and transphobia, and spread false claims, especially relating to medical care of transgender children. The Twitter account, also known by the handle @LibsofTikTok, has over 2 million followers as of March 2023 and has become influential among American conservatives and the political right. Libs of TikTok's social-media accounts have received several temporary suspensions and a permanent suspension from TikTok.

Business magnate Elon Musk initiated an acquisition of American social media company Twitter, Inc. on April 14, 2022, and concluded it on October 27, 2022. Musk had begun buying shares of the company in January 2022, becoming its largest shareholder by April with a 9.1 percent ownership stake. Twitter invited Musk to join its board of directors, an offer he initially accepted before declining. On April 14, Musk made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company, to which Twitter's board responded with a "poison pill" strategy to resist a hostile takeover before unanimously accepting Musk's buyout offer of $44 billion on April 25. Musk stated that he planned to introduce new features to the platform, make its algorithms open-source, combat spambot accounts, and promote free speech.

The Twitter Files are a series of releases of select internal Twitter, Inc. documents published from December 2022 through March 2023 on Twitter. CEO Elon Musk gave the documents to journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and authors Michael Shellenberger, David Zweig and Alex Berenson shortly after he acquired Twitter on October 27, 2022. Taibbi and Weiss coordinated the publication of the documents with Musk, releasing details of the files as a series of Twitter threads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ElonJet</span> Social media account tracking Elon Musks jet

ElonJet is a service that uses social media accounts to track the real-time private airplane usage of Elon Musk. The service, created and provided by Jack Sweeney using public data, has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Truth Social, Mastodon, Threads, and formerly on Twitter, where the Twitter account once had about 530,000 followers, before being suspended. Several of the social media accounts use the handle @elonjet.

Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter in October 2022; Musk acted as CEO of Twitter until June 2023 when he was succeeded by Linda Yaccarino. Twitter was then rebranded to X in July 2023. Initially during Musk's tenure, Twitter introduced a series of reforms and management changes; the company reinstated a number of previously banned accounts, reduced the workforce by approximately 80%, closed one of Twitter's three data centers, and largely eliminated the content moderation team, replacing it with the crowd-sourced fact-checking system Community Notes.

References

  1. 1 2 Isaac, Mike; Conger, Mike (December 15, 2022). "Twitter Suspends Accounts of Half a Dozen Journalists". The New York Times . Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Luciano, Michael (December 15, 2022). "Twitter Suspends Several Reporters Who Cover Elon Musk in Thursday Night Massacre". Mediaite . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Abbruzzese, Jason; Collier, Kevin; Helsel, Phil (December 15, 2022). "Twitter suspends journalists who have been covering Elon Musk and the company". NBC News . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Johnson, Ted; Hipes, Patrick (December 16, 2022). "Twitter Abruptly Suspends Several Journalists Who Have Covered Elon Musk; EU Official Warns Of Sanctions — Update". Deadline . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Massie, Graeme (December 16, 2022). "Twitter suspends liberal journalist Aaron Rupar and CNN, NYT and Washington Post reporters". The Independent . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Elon Musk furious after man follows car carrying son; warns account suspensions over doxxing". Free Press Journal. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 Dang, Sheila (December 17, 2022). "Elon Musk restores Twitter accounts of journalists but concerns persist". Reuters. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Barr, Jeremy Barr; Ellison, Sarah (December 17, 2022). "Musk unsuspends some reporters on Twitter. But their companies never left". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Wile, Rob; Collier, Kevin; Helsel, Phil (December 14, 2022). "Elon Musk threatens legal action, suspends Twitter account that tracks his jet". NBC News . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Peters, Jay (December 14, 2022). "Twitter banned the @ElonJet account tracking Musk's flights, reinstated it, then banned it again". The Verge . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 O'Sullivan, Donie (December 16, 2022). "Twitter suspends account that tracked Musk's private jet, despite billionaire's 'free speech' pledge". CNN . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  12. ↑ Fung, Brian (December 16, 2022). "Elon Musk's Twitter blocked links to rival Mastodon. That could raise alarms among regulators". CNN. Retrieved January 3, 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Reimann, Nicholas; Hart, Robert (December 16, 2022). "Twitter Suspends Accounts For Rival Mastodon And Several High-Profile Journalists". Forbes . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Dang, Sheila (December 16, 2022). "Elon Musk's Twitter suspension of journalists draws global backlash". Financial Post . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Zhuang, Yan; Ward, Euan (December 19, 2022). "Twitter Reinstates Suspended Accounts of Several Journalists". The New York Times . Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Our range of enforcement options for violations | Twitter Help". help.twitter.com. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  17. 1 2 3 Kim, Juliana (December 18, 2022). "Elon Musk reinstates suspended journalists on Twitter after backlash". NPR . Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  18. ↑ Warner, Bernhard (December 16, 2022). "Musk Faces Growing Anger Over Twitter Ban of Journalists". The New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  19. 1 2 Scott, Liam (December 22, 2022). "Whistleblower Files Complaint to Congress Over Twitter Suspending Journalists". Voice of America . Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  20. ↑ Elon Musk [@elonmusk] (November 7, 2022). "My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 7, 2022 – via Twitter.
  21. 1 2 Conger, Kate; Mac, Ryan (November 3, 2022). "Elon Musk Begins Layoffs at Twitter" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  22. 1 2 Sherman, Natalie; Thomas, Daniel (April 25, 2022). "Elon Musk strikes deal to buy Twitter for $44bn". BBC News. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  23. ↑ Lopatto, Elizabeth (October 27, 2022). "Twitter is now an Elon Musk company". The Verge . Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lee, Micah (December 16, 2022). "Elon Musk Is Taking Aim at Journalists. I'm One of Them". The Intercept . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  25. ↑ Rodriguez, Salvador (January 6, 2021). "Twitter locks Trump's account following video addressing Washington rioters". CNBC. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  26. ↑ Lima, Cristiano (January 6, 2021). "YouTube, Facebook and Twitter squelch Trump's video on Capitol breach". Politico . Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  27. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 14, 2022). "We've updated our Private Information policy to prohibit sharing someone else's live location in most cases. Here's what changed and why. 🧵" (Tweet). Retrieved November 20, 2023– via Twitter.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Holt, Kris (December 14, 2022). "Twitter suspends account that tracked Elon Musk's private jet". Engadget . Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  29. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 15, 2022). "Elon Musk on Twitter: "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. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn't a safety problem, so is ok." / Twitter" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 15, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2023– via Twitter.
  30. ↑ Harwell, Drew; Lorenz, Taylor (December 18, 2022). "Musk blamed a Twitter account for an alleged stalker. Police see no link". The Washington Post . Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  31. ↑ Beckett, Lois (December 20, 2022). "Police provide first official details of Elon Musk's alleged stalker incident". The Guardian . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  32. ↑ Knodel, Jamie (December 17, 2022). "Musk reinstates suspended journalists after Twitter poll". NBC News. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  33. ↑ Quinn, Allison (December 17, 2022). "Elon Musk Boots WaPo's Taylor Lorenz From Twitter". The Daily Beast . Retrieved December 17, 2022. Lorenz was apparently suspended for 'violating the Twitter rules,' though it wasn't immediately clear which one.
  34. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 16, 2022). "Same doxxing rules apply to "journalists" as to everyone else" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 16, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2023– via Twitter.
  35. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 16, 2022). "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 16, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2023– via Twitter.
  36. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 16, 2022). "They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 16, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2023– via Twitter.
  37. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 16, 2022). "Elon Musk on Twitter: "@RAMansour @KeithOlbermann 7 day suspension for doxxing. Some time away from Twitter is good for the soul ..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 16, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2023– via Twitter.
  38. ↑ Katie Notopoulos [@katienotopoulos] (December 16, 2022). "It seems my account is banned… but only from Spaces" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  39. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica (December 18, 2022). "Twitter to Ban Accounts That Promote Rival Social Media". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  40. ↑ "Elon Musk launches poll asking if he should quit as Twitter CEO". Reuters. December 18, 2022. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  41. ↑ Roth, Emma (December 18, 2022). "Twitter abruptly bans all links to Instagram, Mastodon, and other competitors". The Verge. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  42. ↑ Hannon, Matt O'Brien, Brian P. D. "Twitter deletes new policy banning 'free promotion' of rival social media platforms". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 16, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  43. ↑ DeGeurin, Mack (December 19, 2022). "Twitter Suddenly Reverses Course on 'Policy' That Banned Links to Competing Social Media Sites". Gizmodo. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  44. ↑ Mishra, Stuti. "Elon Musk says taking down accounts for posting links of rival Mastodon was 'a mistake'". The Independent .
  45. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 16, 2022). "Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 20, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2023– via Twitter.
  46. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 16, 2022). "Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 1, 2023. Retrieved November 21, 2023– via Twitter.
  47. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Anderson, Mae; O'Brien, Matt (December 17, 2022). "Elon Musk reinstates suspended journalists as rift deepens between Twitter and media organizations: 'Self-inflicted wound'". Fortune . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  48. ↑ Lee, Micah (December 20, 2022). "Elon Musk Is Still Silencing the Journalists He Banned From Twitter". The Intercept . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  49. ↑ Rupar, Aaron; Berlatsky, Noah (December 14, 2022). "Elon Musk's reactionary populism". Substack. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  50. ↑ Darcy, Oliver (December 16, 2022). "Elon Musk censors the press". CNN . Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  51. ↑ Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria [@AOC] (December 16, 2022). "You're a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one. I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you. Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 3, 2023. Retrieved November 21, 2023– via Twitter.
  52. ↑ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (December 16, 2022). "They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 16, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2023– via Twitter.
  53. ↑ Sarkar, Alisha Rahaman (December 16, 2022). "AOC criticises Musk over Twitter suspensions of journalists: 'Lay off proto-fascism'". The Independent. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  54. ↑ Ramirez, Nikki McCann (December 16, 2022). "Elon Musk Blasts Crony Bari Weiss for Disagreeing With Journalist Ban". Rolling Stone .
  55. ↑ Clark, Jeffrey (December 16, 2022). "Elon Musk clashes with 'Twitter Files' journo Bari Weiss after she criticizes journalist suspensions". Fox News . Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  56. 1 2 Hoover, Amanda; Meaker, Morgan (December 16, 2022). "No One on Twitter Is Safe From Elon Musk". Wired. Retrieved December 19, 2022. Twitter's moderation is seemingly guided less by set rules and more by what its owner wants at any moment. While Musk argues he's protecting people from being doxed, this week he censored accounts freely—not for illegal speech, but because they offended him. This new approach will have a lasting impact on Twitter. Journalists have helped keep the platform relevant despite its small size relative to competitors like Facebook: They fuel the platform with free, vetted content when news breaks and speculation and rumors swirl. Musk's move against high-profile journalists on Twitter shows how unevenly the policy could be enforced.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.