Musk stops the work of journalists on Twitter and causes an uproar

Controversial billionaire Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter and a self-proclaimed advocate of free speech, caused an uproar on Friday and was threatened with sanctions by the European Union for suspending the accounts of several American journalists.

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The Vice-President of the European Commission, Vera Jourova, described this decision as “disturbing”, as she indicated that there are “red lines” that must not be crossed, threatening Elon Musk in a tweet with “sanctions soon”.

“Press freedom should not be turned on and off at will,” Germany’s foreign ministry denounced in a tweet on Friday, adding that “that’s why we have a problem with Twitter.”

For its part, Reporters Without Borders called for a return of the accounts of the journalists concerned, considering that the “arbitrariness of the main platforms” represents a “great danger to democracy”, and called for “the restoration of control by (…) not too late.”

Dozens of American journalists have been suspended from the social network. They include media insiders such as CNN (Donnie O’Sullivan), The New York Times (Ryan Mack), The Washington Post (Drew Harwell), and freelance journalists.

Some tweeted about Twitter’s decision on Wednesday to suspend the account that automatically reported Elon Musk’s private jet trips.

Twitter did not say why or how long these accounts were suspended. But the owner of the social network, which has generated a lot of controversy since its purchase in October, gave some pointers.

“Everyone will be treated the same,” he said in an audio chat conducted live on Twitter, indicating that there would be no privileges for journalists. After relaunching on the subject, Mr. Musk left the discussion. He then deactivated the Twitter Spaces voice chat service, citing a “technical issue”.

In a tweet posted overnight from Thursday to Friday, Mr. Musk announced a temporary 7-day suspension for “accounts engaged in defamation.”

The term “doxing” means the public disclosure of personal information about an individual on the Internet without their consent.

“They posted my exact real-time location, and coordinates of the assassination verbatim, in direct (and clear) violation of Twitter’s terms of service,” Musk said.

The Twitter account of Mastodon, the social network’s competitor, has also been suspended.

“The hasty and gratuitous comment by a number of journalists like Donnie O’Sullivan’s on CNN is troubling, but not surprising,” CNN said in a statement.

“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility is a particular concern for anyone using the platform. We have asked Twitter for clarification, and will re-evaluate our relationship based on that response.”

“We hope that the accounts of all these journalists will be restored and that Twitter will provide a satisfactory explanation,” New York Times spokesman Charlie Statlander said.

At the start of this story, Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday that a car in Los Angeles with one of his kids had been followed by a “crazy stalker,” and he seemed to refer to his private jet tracker as the one. . justification.

He announced in this tweet that he will be suing the person behind the now suspended ElonJet account.

Created by a student and tracked by about 500,000 people, @ElonJet uses public data to automatically indicate when and where the SpaceX and Tesla president’s hardware took off and landed.

Twitter later reported that its policy now blocks most Tweets that show someone’s real-time location.

When he got to the top of Twitter, Elon Musk promised not to touch the @ElonJet account.

Since taking over the platform for $44 billion, the billionaire has sent mixed messages about what is and isn’t allowed.

An ardent advocate of significant freedom of expression – as long as the notes respect the law – he has reinstated accounts previously banned by the social network, including that of Donald Trump.

But he also suspended Kanye West’s message after posting several messages deemed anti-Semitic and refused to return to the platform of far-right conspirator Alex Jones.