Twitter banned eight journalists Thursday evening, with CEO Elon Musk alleging they had violated Twitter’s rules by publishing real-time “assassination coordinates” for him.
The journalists included the New York Times’ Ryan Mac, Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, independent journalist Aaron Rupar, CNN’s Donnie O’Sullivan, Mashable’s Matt Binder, sports commentator Keith Olbermann, The Intercept’s Micah Lee and Voice of America’s Steve Herman, according to Axios. They appear to have shared links to a flight tracker that follows Elon Musk’s private jet, after Twitter suspended the @ElonJet account that posted regular updates, helping users estimate where Musk might be. (RELATED: Twitter Suspends Account Tracking Elon Musk’s Jet That He Once Defended On ‘Free Speech’ Grounds)
“Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else,” Musk tweeted Thursday evening. “My plane is actually not trackable without using non-public data,” he alleged later in the evening.
They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
The initial suspension of @ElonJet came after Musk alleged that a “crazy stalker” blocked a car containing his two-year-old child, X Musk, and climbed onto its hood. In the same tweet, Musk threatened legal action against Jack Sweeney, the University of Central Florida student who maintains the @ElonJet account and flight tracking software.
Musk then posted a video of the alleged stalker, prominently displaying the license plate of their car, asking Twitter users to identify either the person or the car.
“My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” Musk tweeted on Nov. 6. Thursday evening however, he likened the actions of the various journalists and @ElonJet to posting “assassination coordinates” that endangered his family.
As of Dec. 16, Twitter’s rules prohibit the sharing of “live location information,” including links to third-party sources of that information, “regardless if this information is publicly available.”
Binder was banned after sharing a screenshot of O’Sullivan’s twitter feed, which contained the Los Angeles Police Department’s official statement on the alleged stalking incident Musk tweeted about, the journalist said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Binder denied breaking any of Twitter’s rules, and Mashable said it had found no evidence that he, or any other journalist, had broken Twitter’s rules.
O’Sullvian did not post a link to Musk’s jet tracker, although a screenshot he posted contained a cached link to the tracker, CNN told the DCNF.
Herman received no information about why his account was suspended, and Voice of America has requested both his reinstatement and an explanation for the incident, Voice Of America spokesman Nigel Gibbs told the DCNF.
“Last night’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times’s Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate,” a New York Times spokesperson told the DCNF. “Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”
The Washington Post took a significantly more aggressive stance on the suspensions, calling out Musk for hypocrisy.
“The suspension of Drew Harwell’s Twitter account directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech,” the Post’s Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said in a statement to the DCNF. “Harwell was banished from Twitter without warning, process or explanation, following the publication of his accurate reporting about Musk. Our journalist should be reinstated immediately.”
Twitter, CNN and The Intercept did not immediately respond to a DCNF request for comment.
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