John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 12.16.2022 06:Dec AM EST

AOC, Elon Musk Butt Heads on Twitter Following Journalists’ Suspension

Elon Musk and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) are butting heads once again.

The New York Representative recently told Musk on Twitter to cease his "proto-fascism" to prevent the further intensification of his environment and surroundings.

AOC's comment to Musk follows the latter's move of suspending the Twitter accounts of journalists covering him, with some questioning Musk's commitment to "free speech."

AOC v. Musk Twitter Spat Details

Musk, following the suspension of journalists' Twitter accounts, tweeted an explanation as to why he had to do what he did. According to his tweet, the journalists he suspended were posting his exact real-time location, which he believes were "assassination coordinates," which are in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter's terms of service.

You may remember that Twitter introduced a new policy that prevents people from sharing the real-time locations of someone and prevents them from following in @ElonJet's footsteps, per The Verge.

Some of the suspended journalists include NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, The Washington Post's Drew Harwell, and Ryan Mac from The New York Times.

AOC did not take these suspensions lightly, with the New York representative telling Musk in a reply to his explanation that she understands the feeling of being unsafe as a fellow public figure with a controversial and powerful nature.

She also claimed to have been subject to real and dangerous plots in a follow-up tweet, and that she didn't have security and had experienced many terrifying incidents as a result.

However, AOC believes that Musk's "descent into abuse of power," coupled with erratically banning journalists, will only increase the intensity around himself.

Lastly, AOC added that Musk should "take a beat" and lay off the proto-fascism and put down his phone.

20 minutes later, Musk tweeted a response to AOC's comment, saying that she should put her phone down first before he does.

Musk's Reasons For The Suspension

Musk's reason for prohibiting live-tracking someone else on Twitter is allegedly well-founded.

According to The Daily Mail, Musk claimed that a stalker followed the car carrying his child in Los Angeles, thinking Musk was inside. The stalker would allegedly block the car from moving and climbed onto the hood.

He then tweeted on Dec. 16 that criticizing him is fine, but doxxing his real-time location and endangering his family is not.

Musk would later suspend the journalists tracking him in real-time along with @ElonJet. He also published a poll asking if he should unsuspended the people revealing his location in real-time immediately, the day after, in a week, or a longer period.

However, Musk would later redo the poll due to the options he added on the first.

His latest poll about the issue has two options: immediately or in seven days, with immediately or "Now" leading with 59.7%.

Interestingly, Musk's first poll showed that the "Now" option won with 43% of 535,233 votes, while 38.1% of voters voted for a longer suspension period before unsuspending them.