On Thursday, Twitter Inc suspended the accounts of various journalists, including ones from the New York Times and the Washington Post, with the site showing “account suspended” notices for them.
Reuters could not immediately find out why those accounts were suspended. All the suspended journalists have in recent months written about Twitter’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, and critiqued changes on the platform since he bought it.
Replying to a Tweet on the account suspensions, Musk tweeted: “Same doxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else,” a reference to Twitter rules banning sharing of personal information, called doxing.
He added: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twitter, on Thursday, suspended an account tracking Musk’s private jet in real-time, a month after he said his commitment to free speech extended to not banning the account.
The accounts of Times reporter Ryan Mac (@rmac18), Post reporter Drew Harwell (@drewharwell), CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan (@donie), and Mashable reporter Matt Binder @MattBinder were suspended. The account of independent journalist Aaron Rupar (@atrupar), who covers U.S. policy and politics, was also suspended.
A spokesperson for The New York Times said: “Tonight’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times’s Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate. Neither The Times nor Ryan has received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”
The official account of social media company Mastodon (@joinmastodon), which has come up as a substitute for Twitter since Musk acquired the company for $44 billion in October, was also suspended. Mastodon could not immediately be reached for comment.
