Twitter suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists from major news organizations like CNN, New York Times etc, without explanation Thursday night, in what appeared to be a major attempt by new owner Elon Musk to exercise his unilateral power over the platform.
The accounts of CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and other journalists who have aggressively covered Musk in recent weeks were suddenly and permanently suspended.
The report on progressive freelance journalist Aaron Rupar was also banned.The account of progressive independent journalist Aaron Rupar was also banned.
Neither Musk nor Twitter responded to a request for comment Thursday night, and the platform did not specifically explain why the reporters were removed from the platform.
But he appeared to claim that the sanctioned accounts violated his new “doxxing” policy and shared what he said were “assassination coordinates” about him, although many noted that journalists did not share that kind of information.
O’Sullivan, Mac and Harwell recently announced the banning of the @ElonJet account, which posted real-time updates on the location of Musk’s private jet.
Doxxing generally refers to sharing someone’s home address or other personal information online. Instead, the banned account used publicly available flight data, which is still online and accessible, to track Musk’s plane.
CNN spokesperson said the company has asked Twitter for an explanation, and it would “reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”
Credit: CNN, Edited by AfricTeam
