Angela Beltran Tech 12.16.2022 01:Dec AM EST

Journalists Suspended on Twitter for Posts Relating to @ElonJet

It appears that the new Twitter owner is on a warpath against journalists covering him. Several media practitioners have found their Twitter accounts suspended after posting about Elon Musk, the social media platform, or the suspension of @ElonJet.

Journalists Who Were Suspended

NBC News Senior Reporter Ben Collins listed down the journalists who were suspended along with the context of why it happened. He did so with the risk of being suspended himself, since evidently, Musk is not too happy with the subject being discussed.

At first, Donie O'Sullivan from CNN, Drew Harwell from The Washington Post, and Aaron Rupar were suspended with no clue what the reason is. O'Sullivan's last tweet had his interview with Jack Sweeney, the man behind @ElonJet.

Drew Harwell from The Washington Post soon followed with his tweet about Twitter suspending Mastodon. Mastodon reportedly posted a link to the account which tracked the whereabouts of Elon Musk's jet.

Ryan Mac from The New York Times followed after talking about Jack Sweeney, as well as the new Twitter policy after the issue involving @ElonJet. Musk implemented doxing rules because of the safety risks that it caused.

Matt Binder from Mashable retweeted a post implying that Musk and his son were not actually followed by a stalker due to being tracked. This got him suspended as well, according to Engadget.

It seems that the "free speech" conundrum was still a sore spot for the tech billionaire, as Micah McFlee from The Intercept got suspended for calling out Musk. She expressed that after Elon Musk took over, there was more "arbitrary censorship" on Twitter.

The Tech Billionaire's Privacy

When someone pointed out that all the accounts that were suspended tweeted about the jet tracker issue, which violates the new doxxing policy, Elon Musk responded. He noted that all doxxing rules apply to journalists as well as everyone else.

In a separate tweet, Musk also replied that it was okay to criticize him all day long, but doxing his real-time location and endangering his family was not. This calls into question the limitations of his so-called "free speech."

The issue started blowing up the moment that Musk's son, little X, was followed by a stalker in LA, which Musk claims. He tweeted that the stalker blocked the car and climbed onto the hood, thinking it was Elon Musk inside the car.

Initially, The Tesla CEO tried a more peaceful way of resolving the issue. According to BBC, there were rumors that Musk offered Sweeney $5000 just to delete the account. Sweeney revealed that Musk said that it wasn't right to pay just to have the account taken down.

Elon Musk has already taken legal action against Jack Sweeny for tweeting updates about Musk's flight schedule. Musk also said that anyone who revealed people's real-time locations would be suspended since it's a physical safety violation.