Twitter Suspends Journalists Covering Elon Musk

By Ashley Turner

Elon Musk, the billionaire and Tesla CEO who recently acquired Twitter, suspended several high-profile journalists who covered him and the platform on Dec. 15, NBC News reported. After suspending one of the journalists, Musk faced off with him in a Twitter Space audio discussion with an audience of over 30,000 listeners hours later. Through the audio function of the website, the suspended journalist and several others could gain access to the platform. "You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it," Musk said, outlining his latest policy to the group, before leaving minutes later. He was referring to the recent Twitter rule change, implemented on Dec. 14, regarding accounts that track private jets, including his own. 20-year-old college student Jack Sweeney, who set up the Twitter account that tracked Musk's jet, was also able to participate in the conversation despite the suspension of his account. Later, Musk joined the discussion but briefly presented his talking points before leaving suddenly. Earlier, he posted a poll asking whether to reinstate the journalists' accounts. The poll was deleted, and a new one with fewer options was shared when the majority voted for the accounts to be restored, according to NBC News. 

After Musk exited the conversation, the audio discussion and Twitter's Spaces feature were quickly shut down. Musk then tweeted, "we're fixing a Legacy bug. Should be working tomorrow." The dialogue centered on the suspension of several journalists. The accounts of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America, and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann, and Tony Webster have all been suspended as of Thursday evening. In response to a tweet from Mike Solana, a VP for venture capital firm Founders Fund, who said the suspended accounts had posted links to jet trackers on other sites, Musk said the suspensions were the result of new rules banning private jet trackers. "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not," he said in another tweet. 

Musk tweeted that the accounts banned Thursday posted "my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service." Musk later added the suspensions would last for seven days. Twitter has been dealing with a rough couple of days after suspending the account that tracked Musk's jet. According to Musk, a "stalker" confronted a car carrying his child in Los Angeles on Tuesday, which led him to threaten legal action against Sweeney, the creator of the @ElonJet account. Despite Musk's claims, he failed to provide any proof that Sweeney or his account was involved or the time and place of the incident. According to NBC News, the Los Angeles Police Department has not filed any police reports."LAPD's Threat Management Unit is aware of the situation and tweet by Elon Musk and is in contact with his representatives and security team. No crime reports have been filed yet," police public information officer Lizeth Lomeli said in a statement Thursday.

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