Twitter, which was acquired by the world’s richest man Elon Musk (Elon Musk) not long ago, suddenly closed the Twitter accounts of nearly ten journalists from various media on the evening of Thursday (December 15). The real-time location of Sik and his family is tantamount to publishing the "basic coordinates of the assassination."
The journalists whose Twitter accounts were shut down came from CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, and Voice of America.
According to the Washington Post report, when Twitter shut down the accounts, it neither provided warning to the account owners nor explained it in the first place. Twitter abruptly changed its policy on sharing "real-time location information" and shut down @ElonJet a day before closing the accounts of these journalists. The account has been using public flight data to share the location of Musk's private jet.
Journalists whose accounts were shut down Thursday night reported on Twitter's policy change to share "real-time location information" and also cited Musk's claims that he and his family were in danger because of their location. statement.
According to the Washington Post, Twitter did not directly respond to questions about its closure of the accounts of these journalists, but Musk himself claimed on Twitter without showing evidence that these reporters leaked personal information about his family. .
"It's perfectly fine to criticize me all day long, but it's not okay to doxx my real-time location and endanger my family," he tweeted late Thursday.
Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell discovered he was unable to access his Twitter account around 7:30 p.m. twitter account.
"Javier was banned from Twitter without warning, process, or explanation after reporting accurately on Elon Musk," Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee said in a statement. . "Our journalists' accounts should be reinstated immediately."
In addition to Javier, the journalists whose accounts were shut down by Twitter included at least eight other journalists, including Steve Herman, chief national correspondent for Voice of America.
CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan's account was shut down shortly after he retweeted Musk's text about his young son being stalked by a "crazy guy" in Los Angeles.
"Twitter's passion for free speech is completely out of step with the actions to shut down the accounts of journalists who speak critically," Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "The First Amendment guarantees Musk the right to do this, but this is a very bad decision. These people's accounts should be reinstated immediately."
Musk is still repeating his baseless allegations that the reporters leaked personal information about him and his family.
"The same rules for doxing that apply to everyone apply to 'reporters,'" he said in another tweet. "They posted my exact real-time location, which was basically the coordinates of the assassination."
Near midnight on Thursday, Musk had a Twitter group chat with several reporters, including one whose account had been disabled. When he reiterated that these reporters "human flesh" him, these reporters immediately challenged his statement, emphasizing that the real-time location of him and his family was never disclosed. But Musk couldn't listen, and the group chat lasted only four minutes before he angrily went offline and left.
