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Musk restores journalists’ Twitter accounts amid backlash
STORY: Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day… after stinging criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations, with some saying Twitter was jeopardizing press freedom. The suspensions stemmed from a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk’s private plane using publicly available information. In a tweet on Saturday, Musk – referring to a poll that showed a majority of respondents wanted the journalists’ accounts restored immediately – said “The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now.” Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. A Reuters check showed the suspended accounts, which included journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, have been reinstated. Aaron Rupar – an independent journalist covering U.S. media and politics, and publisher of the newsletter, ‘Public Notice’ – on Wednesday published a newsletter critical of Musk: “I published a newsletter taking a close look at kind of his brand of populism…”By Thursday, Rupar’s popular Twitter account had been suspended. “It seemed like beyond being critics of Elon, the one thing that all of us had in common was that we had linked to the Facebook page tracking his private jets.” Come Saturday, Rupar was back on the platform… tweeting: “I want to thank everyone for all the support and kind words over the past day and some change. I was pretty bummed about getting suspended initially but quickly realized it’d be fine because I’m blessed to have an amazing online community…”The episode, which one well known security researcher labeled the “Thursday Night Massacre,” is being regarded by critics as fresh evidence of Musk, who considers himself a “free speech absolutist,” eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes.
