Twitter could face severe sanctions due to ban on journalists

Following the abrupt suspension of many journalists’ accounts who were covering the company, the EU threatened fines against Twitter’s founder Elon Musk.

One group of those unable to access their accounts were journalists for the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post.

Vera Jourova, a commissioner for the EU, issued a warning that the EU’s Digital Services Act demands respect for press freedom.

“Elon Musk ought to be conscious of that. Red lines are present. sanctions, shortly, “Tweeted her.

She uttered: “It is alarming to hear of the arbitrary suspension of journalists from Twitter.

“Media freedom and basic rights must be respected, according to the EU’s Digital Services Act. By virtue of our Media Freedom Act, this is strengthened.”

Earlier, a Twitter spokesperson informed technology publication The Verge that the restriction applied to the live sharing of location information.

After threatening to sue the owner of a profile that tracks his private jet, Mr. Musk announced it.

The Intercept’s Micha Lee, Mashable’s Matt Binder, and independent reporters Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster are also on the list of prohibited journalists.

The suspensions were described as “questionable and unfortunate” by a New York Times representative, who also claimed that neither the newspaper nor reporter Ryan Mac had received any justification for the decision.

The abrupt and unjustifiable suspension of several reporters, according to CNN, “is worrying but not surprising.” It has enquired about the matter with Twitter and promises to “re-evaluate our partnership depending on that response.”

The move was noteworthy, according to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, whose account was among those that were suspended, because of “the potential chilling influence” it could have on journalists, particularly those who cover Mr. Musk’s other companies.

In a tweet sent out after completing his acquisition of the social media platform in October, Mr. Musk expressed his desire for “civilization to have a digital town square” and said that he had purchased Twitter in order to “attempt to serve humanity.”

Even though Mr. Musk hasn’t directly addressed the bans, he did tweet that “criticising me all day long is entirely ok, but doxxing my real-time whereabouts and endangering my family is not.”

A temporary seven-day suspension is applied to accounts that engage in doxxing, which is the online disclosure of private information about persons.

He tweeted that “journalists” are subject to the same doxxing laws as everyone else. “They directly violated the Twitter rules of service by posting my exact real-time position, which is essentially assassination coordinates.”

“FBI would be investigating, there would be hearings on Capitol Hill, and Biden would give speeches about the loss of democracy,” he said. “If someone posted real-time whereabouts and addresses of NYT reporters.”

The tech billionaire has since created a poll asking whether he should restore the accounts “immediately” or “in seven days,” indicating that the decision may be overturned sooner rather than later.

One of those suspended, Matt Binder, a Mashable journalist, claimed he had no idea why he had been barred.

He stated that, “I’ve been pretty critical of Musk in my reporting.”

However, he asserted that it was untrue that Mr. Musk had claimed “that everyone that got suspended was doxxing him – due to the jet tracker”.

“Truth be told, I never tweeted a link to that tracker. People who haven’t been blacklisted are still linking directly to the jet tracker.

Given that the link was tweeted by literally hundreds of accounts every minute, it is obvious that the individuals who were suspended were hand-picked.

Since joining Twitter in 2008, Mr. Binder has been covering the site’s progress and expressed surprise at the prohibition for journalists.

“I knew it was possible, but I truly didn’t think he would because it would completely scupper the pretence of being a free speech platform,” the author said.

According to Ella Irwin, the head of trust and safety at Twitter, prohibitions are tied to a new policy that was announced on Wednesday and forbids sharing “live location information, including information provided on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes.”

Without commenting on any individual accounts, Mrs. Irwin assured the publication that “we will suspend any accounts that breach our privacy policies and endanger other users.”

Journalists and other accounts are not exempt from this rule, according to the statement.

Later, Mr. Musk addressed reporters via Twitter Spaces, a feature of the social media app that enables real-time audio discussions.

Thirty thousand people watched his brief presence, but after responding to some inquiries regarding the ban, he left, and Twitter Spaces itself thereafter appeared to be suspended.

Twitter suspended the @ElonJet account and other accounts that were tracking his private aircraft using information that was made available to the public on Wednesday.

The personal account of Jack Sweeney, the 20-year-old founder of @ElonJet, was also suspended. Since then, Mr. Musk has pledged to sue him as well as “organisations who advocated harm to my family.”

According to Mr. Musk, a “crazy stalker” tracked down and approached a car carrying his kids in Los Angeles via live location sharing.

The official Mastodon account was also suspended by Twitter. Mastodon, which Elon Musk acquired for $44 billion in October, has become a popular alternative to Twitter.

It happened when Mastodon, according to the New York Times, on Thursday promoted Mr. Sweeney’s new account on Twitter.

It also looked that links to specific Mastodon accounts were prohibited. Users were informed via an error notice that links to Mastodon had been “identified” by Twitter or its partners as “possibly dangerous.”

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