Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner Elon Musk, among them reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America, and other publications.
The company hasn’t explained to the journalists why it took down the accounts and made their profiles and past tweets disappear. But Musk took to Twitter on Thursday night to accuse journalists of sharing private information about his whereabouts that he described as “basically assassination coordinates.” He provided no evidence for that claim.
The sudden suspension of news reporters followed Musk’s decision Wednesday to permanently ban an account that automatically tracked the flights of his private jet using publicly available data. That also led Twitter to change its rules for all users to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent.
Several of the reporters suspended Thursday night had been writing about that new policy and Musk’s rationale for imposing it, which involved his allegations about a stalking incident he said affected his family on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
“Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else,” Musk tweeted Thursday. He later added: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”
“Doxxing” refers to disclosing online someone’s identity, address, or other personal details.
The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, called for technology reporter Drew Harwell’s Twitter account to be reinstated immediately. The suspension “directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech,” Buzbee wrote. “Harwell was banished without warning, process or explanation, following the publication of his accurate reporting about Musk.”
CNN said in a statement that “the impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising.”
“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” CNN’s statement added. “We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”
Another suspended journalist, Matt Binder of the technology news outlet Mashable, said he was banned Thursday night immediately after sharing a screenshot that O’Sullivan had posted before the CNN reporter’s suspension.
The screenshot showed a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department sent earlier Thursday to multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press, about how it was in touch with Musk’s representatives about the alleged stalking incident, but that no crime report had yet been filed.
“I did not share any location data, as per Twitter’s new terms. Nor did I share any links to ElonJet or other location-tracking accounts,” Binder said in an email. “I have been highly critical of Musk but never broke any of Twitter’s listed policies.”
Binder said a message he received while trying to access his Twitter account showed that his suspension was permanent. But Musk later suggested the penalty would last a week in response to a question about his suspension of former ESPN and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.
Late Thursday, Musk briefly joined a Twitter Spaces conference chat hosted by journalist Kate Notopoulos of Buzzfeed. He reiterated his claims that the journalist's Twitter banned was “doxxing” him when they were reporting on the jet tracking accounts being banned.
“There is no special treatment for journalists,” Musk said, after being asked by the Post’s Drew Harwell if he had a connection between the stalking incident and the posting of real-time information.
“You dox, you get suspended, end of the story,” he added, before abruptly signing out. The Spaces ended abruptly shortly after 9 p.m. Pacific time.
“Sorry it appears the Space cut out, the screen went suddenly blank on my end and everyone got booted,” host Notopoulos tweeted at 9:14 p.m. Pacific.
Another suspended reporter, Steve Herman of Voice of America, said he assumes he was banned “because I was tweeting about other journalists being suspended for tweeting about accounts being booted that had linked to the Elon Jet feed.”
The suspensions come as Musk makes major changes to content moderation on Twitter. He has tried, through the release of selected company documents dubbed as “The Twitter Files,” to claim the platform suppressed right-wing voices under its previous leaders.
He has promised to let free speech reign and has reinstated high-profile accounts that previously broke Twitter’s rules against hateful conduct or harmful misinformation, but also said he would suppress negativity and hate by depriving some accounts of “freedom of reach.”
The nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists, which defends journalists around the world, said Thursday night it was concerned about the suspensions.
“If confirmed as retaliation for their work, this would be a serious violation of journalists’ right to report the news without fear of reprisal,” the group said.
Twitter Inc must notify the thousands of workers who were laid off after its acquisition by Elon Musk of a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before terminating them, a San Francisco federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge James Donato in a three-page order on Wednesday said that before asking workers to sign severance agreements waiving their ability to sue the company, Twitter must give them "a succinct and plainly worded notice" of the lawsuit filed last month.
Twitter laid off roughly 3,700 employees in early November in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, the world's richest person, and hundreds more subsequently resigned.
The lawsuit says Twitter failed to give the 60 days' notice required by federal and California laws before engaging in mass layoffs. Twitter has denied wrongdoing.
Donato in the ruling said asking workers to waive legal claims against Twitter without telling them about the lawsuit would be misleading.
Twitter had agreed not to seek releases from laid-off workers pending Donato's decision.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the decision "a basic but important step that will provide employees with the opportunity to more fully understand their rights instead of just signing them away."
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
The company had argued that notice was unnecessary because most of its employees had signed agreements requiring them to bring legal disputes in arbitration and waiving their ability to join class actions against the company.
Donato is scheduled to hold a hearing next month on Twitter's motion to send the case to arbitration. The plaintiffs amended their complaint this month to add workers who say they never signed arbitration agreements.
Twitter is facing three other proposed class actions in the same court over the layoffs. The lawsuits accuse Twitter of failing to give contract workers notice before laying them off and discriminating against women and employees with disabilities. The company has not responded to those claims.
Liss-Riordan, who is involved in all of the lawsuits, has said she could bring additional employment claims against Twitter, including if the company denies severance pay to laid-off workers. She also said last week that she would defend workers if Musk follows through on a reported threat to sue employees who leak confidential information to the press.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which enforces rules against deceptive practices, has contacted Twitter to ask if the company still has the resources to comply with a privacy consent decree, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Upheaval and mass layoffs at Twitter since its takeover by Elon Musk have sparked concerns that the social media giant might fail to abide by a May 2022 settlement with the U.S. regulator in which the company agreed to improve its privacy practices. That settlement preceded the Musk takeover.
Those concerns prompted the FTC last month to say it was "tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern. No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees," it said at the time.
In a settlement in May, Twitter agreed to pay $150 million and assess potential features for data privacy and security issues. It also resolved allegations that it misused private information, such as phone numbers, for advertising after telling users the information would be used for security reasons.
That settlement, in turn, was prompted by assertions that the company had violated a prior consent decree reached in 2011 after two data breaches, with Twitter pledging then that it would not mislead users about privacy protections.
The most recent letters were first reported in the New York Times.
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
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022