On Thursday evening, Elon Musk again showed his unilateral authority over Twitter by banning several high-profile Journalists from renowned news organisations CNN, NYT and WaPo.
What is the Complete News?
Journalists who aggressively covered Elon Musk in recent weeks were permanently suspended from Twitter. These journalists include Drew Harwell from The Washington Post, Donie O’Sullivan from CNN and Ryan Mac from The New York Times. An independent journalist, Aaron Rupar, is also on the list.
However, Musk’s actions again showed his unilateral authority over the platform.
Why did Journalists get banned from Twitter?
The breaking news is that Elon Musk Twitter didn’t explain why journalists were banned from the platform. However, Musk claimed that CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan had violated his doxxing policy by sharing Musk’s live location.
But according to the journalist, he didn’t share anything. Doxxing policy refers to sharing someone’s personal information or live location on the internet.
How News Organisations reacted to the suspension of their Journalists
News organisations asked for an explanation from Twitter for banning their high-profile journalists. One of CNN’s spokespersons claimed that the unjustified suspension of journalists concerns but is not surprising.
The spokesperson added Twitter’s increasing volatility would be a significant concern for every Twitter user. On the other hand, The New York Times’s spokesperson also reacted to the suspension.
The spokesperson called it an unfortunate and questionable action from the platform. We have yet to get an explanation why our journalists, including others, got suspended.
The spokesperson ended the conversation by saying the journalist’s accounts should be reinstated and Twitter must provide a satisfying explanation. On Thursday, Drew Harwell from The Washington Post also shared his views on his suspension on CNN.
He said one time, Elon Musk, said he supports free speech, but on the other hand, he is banning journalists who are exercising that only. It shows Musk’s commitments are different from his actions.
The independent journalist Aaron Rupar also complained about not receiving any explanation before his suspension. Therefore, it is concluded that most of the news organisations condemned Twitter’s decision to suspend journalists’ accounts.
And it clearly shows that purging high-profile journalists’ accounts made it impossible to meet Twitter’s free speech aspirations.
Taylor Lorenz reacted aggressively to the Actions of Elon Musk’s Twitter
Elon Musk faced a lot of criticism after his actions. Taylor Lorenze, an American journalist for The Washington Post, reacted very aggressively to Twitter’s decision.
She began tweeting very aggressively just after Twitter banned journalists who targeted Musk. Taylor made fun of Musk’s free speech commitment by sharing a meme on the platform, saying if freedom of speech is taken away from us, only silent and dumb will lead us.
Taylor also tweeted that she doesn’t know how long she is going to be allowed on the platform after criticising Elon Musk. She shared some of her other profile links to convey to her followers that they can follow her on these platforms.
Taylor also reacted to Twitter’s banning Mastodon. She said the platform is blocking her profile links, calling it harmful.
In response to all criticism, Elon Musk tweeted that criticising me is fine but sharing my live location and putting my family in danger is unacceptable.
What’s Next?
After banning these journalists, several questions arise about Twitter’s future. It also raises some serious questions about Musk’s repeatedly supposed commitment to free speech.
After taking complete control of the platform, Musk kept talking about permitting all legal speech. The day when Musk bought Twitter, he tweeted that he hoped that his worst critics remain on the platform because it means free speech.
Before Sullivan’s suspension, he claimed that Twitter also suspended an emerging social media service, Mastodon, which amassed over 500,000 followers, for allowing the continued posting of ElonJet.
ElonJet is an account that shows the latest location of Musk’s private jet. Again the reason was the violation of Twitter’s new doxxing policy. However, there were no these location-type restrictions on Twitter previously.
These changes were just made after Elon Musk bought the platform. After the uproar over the suspension began, some Twitter users reported that the platform interfered when they tried to post their profile URL of an alternative social media service, Mastodon, on the platform.
It was confirmed by a CNN reporter who was blocked just after the reporter shared a Mastodon profile URL.
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