Elon Musk banned at least nine journalists from Twitter on Thursday night in a mass purge by arguably the pettiest man on the planet. And while the journalists haven’t been told what caused the bans, it appears that many had tweeted about the Twitter account that tracked Elon’s private jet using publicly available information.
The bans, called “permanent suspensions” in Twitter lingo, come after Musk banned the @ElonJet account on Wednesday, later explaining that he believed it was a threat to his family’s safety. Musk has said he’s going to take legal action against the college student who ran the account. Just a few weeks earlier, Musk had insisted the account wouldn’t be banned because he believed in free speech so much.
Musk appeared to confirm the bans were all about his private jet, writing on Twitter late Thursday, “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else.”
Aaron Rupar, an independent journalist who previously worked at Vox, told Gizmodo that Twitter provided no explanation for his ban.
“I would appreciate it if someone at Twitter would try to explain the rationale for this. Twitter is obviously a huge, huge part of my audience, so as an independent journalist being cut off from that really hurts,” Rupar told Gizmodo via email.
Twitter no longer has a communications team for Gizmodo to contact, but Twitter’s head of trust and safety Ella Irwin told the Verge’s Alex Heath that these accounts were supposedly putting people “at risk.”
“Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk,” Irwin told the Verge.
Below, a list of the journalists who have been suspended, which Gizmodo will update as we learn more:
- Matt Binger (Mashable)
- Drew Harwell (Washington Post)
- Steve Herman (VOA News)
- It’s Going Down News (Independent Site)
- Micah Lee (The Intercept)
- Ryan Mac (New York Times)
- Mastadon (Social Media Site)
- Keith Olbermann (formerly MSNBC)
- Donie O’Sullivan (CNN)
- Tony Webster (Minnesota Reformer)
Musk has previously called himself a “free speech absolutist,” but Twitter’s rules have never been more restrictive than since he took over. The only people who seem to get carte blanche on the platform these days are anti-Muslim bigots, far-right insurrectionists, and literal neo-Nazis.
A small sample of people who’ve been reinstated since Musk took over:
- Baked Alaska (neo-Nazi, real name Tim Gionet)
- Andrew Anglin (founder of the Daily Stormer neo-Nazi site)
- Laura Loomer (anti-Muslim bigot)
- Roger Stone (former Trump advisor)
“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,” the New York Times said in a statement published on Twitter.
“Neither The Times nor Ryan have 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.”