Twitter: The accounts of several journalists suspended

Twitter boss Elon Musk has just suspended the accounts of several journalists on the social network.

The accounts belonged to reporters from CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Mashable media platform.

Relevant media representatives said they have not received any explanation as to why the accounts were suspended.

Twitter also suspended the official account of Mastodon, a social media platform that has risen to prominence in recent months, also without providing an explanation.

Musk said the platform suspended an account that tracked and tweeted the movements of the Twitter boss’ private jet.

The account, called @ElonJet, was run by a University of Florida student named Jack Sweeney and had around 500,000 followers.

Twitter also suspended several other accounts run by Sweeney that tracked public figure thefts.

The social network changed its private information policy to prohibit the sharing of other people’s live locations.

“My commitment to free speech even goes so far as not to ban the account that follows my plane, even if it is a direct personal safety risk,” Musk tweeted last month. .

However, Musk on Wednesday equated the practice with doxxing, or posting private information online with malicious intent, tweeting “Real-time posting of someone else’s location violates doxxing policy. , but delayed publishing of locations is acceptable. »

The billionaire also indicated that Twitter will block accounts that post links to sites containing real-time location information.

The decision to suspend journalists’ accounts contradicts claims by Musk, who had underscored his intention to make the platform a bastion of free speech, with transparent rules governing all content decisions.

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