SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the billionaire’s plane.
The reinstatements came after the unprecedented suspensions evoked stinging criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations from several parts of the globe on Friday, with some saying the microblogging platform was jeopardizing press freedom.
A Twitter poll that Musk conducted later also showed that a majority of the respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately.
“The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
Screen shot of Elon Musk’s Twitter account.
Officials from France, Germany, Britain and the European Union earlier condemned the suspensions.
The episode, which one well known security researcher labeled the “Thursday Night Massacre,” is being regarded by critics as fresh evidence of Musk, who considers himself a “free speech absolutist,” eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes.
Shares in Tesla (TSLA.O), an electric car maker led by Musk, slumped 4.7 percent on Friday and posted their worst weekly loss since March 2020.
ElonJet
The suspensions stemmed from a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk’s private plane using publicly available information.
On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets, despite Musk’s previous tweet saying he would not suspend ElonJet in the name of free speech.
Shortly after, Twitter changed its privacy policy to prohibit the sharing of “live location information.”
Then on Thursday evening, several journalists, including from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, were suspended from Twitter with no notice.
The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, an association of business journalists, said in a statement on Friday that Twitter’s actions “violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow the unfiltered distribution of information that is already in the public square.”
Musk accused the journalists of posting his real-time location, which is “basically assassination coordinates” for his family.
The billionaire appeared briefly in a Twitter Spaces audio chat hosted by journalists, which quickly turned into a contentious discussion about whether the suspended reporters had actually exposed Musk’s real-time location in violation of the policy.
“If you dox, you get suspended. End of story,” Musk said repeatedly in response to questions.
