Elon Musk, who had ensured freedom of expression on Twitter, contradicted himself with the suspension of the accounts of journalists who cover him and the technology company.
Twitter suspended Thursday accounts of more than half a dozen journalists who have been reporting on the company and its new owner Elon Musk.
Some of the journalists have been tweeting regarding Twitter’s decision to take down the account. @ElonJetwhich tracked the flights of Musk’s private plane, and regarding versions from that account hosted on other social networks.
Twitter did not explain why the journalists’ accounts were suspended.
“Nothing says more regarding freedom of expression than suspending journalists who cover you”wrote Sarah Reese Jones, of the opinion and news portal PoliticusUSA, in response to a tweet regarding the suspensions.
Among the suspended accounts are those of reporteros de CNN, The New York Times y The Washington Postas well as independent journalists.
As reported by NBCNews, the social network account was also suspended Mastodonrecent competition from Twitter.
Elon Musk’s arguments
On Wednesday Musk tweeted that a vehicle in Los Angeles carrying one of his children he was followed by “a crazy stalker” and appeared to blame the alleged incident on tracking his private plane.
In addition, he claimed that he took legal action once morest the person who operated ElonJet.
The Twitter account that tracked Musk’s flights was suspended despite the businessman’s promise not to touch it in the interest of free speech.
“Well it looks like @ElonJet is suspended”, tweeted its creator, Jack Sweeney, from his personal account @JxckSweeney, who also suffered the same fate some time later.
Then Twitter reported that it had updated its policy to ban tweets that, in most cases, reveal someone’s location in real time.
Musk wrote that “any account that doxxes (public disclosure of personal data, ndlr) with real-time location information will be suspended, It’s a physical security breach.”
Musk y Twitter
Since taking over Twitter, Musk has sent mixed messages regarding what is and isn’t allowed on the platform.
Musk restored accounts previously suspended by the social network, including that of former US President Donald Trump.
But it also canceled that of rapper Kanye West following the publication of several messages considered anti-Semitic.
And he rejected the return to Twitter of Alex Jones, founder of the far-right website InfoWars, who was sentenced to pay some $1.5 billion in damages for claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a “hoax.”
European Commission attentive
The European Commission threatened this Friday with the possibility of sanctioning Twitter for the suspension of the accounts of several journalists who follow the information related to its owner, Elon Musk.
“The news regarding the arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. The digital services law requires respect for freedom of the press and fundamental rights,” said the Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourová, on Twitter.
“It is reinforced by the law on freedom of the press of the media. Musk must be aware of this. There are red lines. And soon, sanctions, ”he added.
The digital services law, which will begin to be applied in the middle of next year, forces the large platforms to be more transparent in the operation of the algorithms that regulate what users see on the Internet and to quickly eliminate illegal content, but always in a justified way and guaranteeing the balance with the right to freedom of expression.
