Twitter suspends accounts of journalists, rival platforms

Twitter has suspended the accounts of several journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner Elon Musk. The social media site has also suspended rival platforms such as open-source network Mastodon and Indian microblogging platform Koo's account.

While the exact number of journalists whose accounts have been banned is yet to be known, some notable names include, Donie O'Sullivan from CNN, Drew Harwell from the Washington Post, Ryan Mac from The New York Times, Aaron Rupar from The Independent, Voice of America correspondent Steve Herman and commentator Keith Olbermann, among others, who complained that the company hasn't explained why it took down the accounts and made their profiles and past tweets disappear.   

The platform on the other hand, claimed that it is suspending accounts that pose a threat to others' well-being as part of its new privacy policies. In a Tweet on Friday Musk commented on the suspension, stating that “the same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else” adding that “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not” which is “a direct violation of Twitter terms of service".    

The term “doxxing” normally refers to the posting of large amounts of personal information with malicious intent.   

“Banning journalists for doing their jobs is not the free speech Elon Musk promised,” noted journalist Tony Webster, who was permanently suspended. Webster said that he had been tweeting about @ElonJet, an account that tracks Musk’s private jet, prior to the removal.   

  Rupar also confirmed that he had tweeted about @ElonJet on Wednesday.   

However, Mashable reporter Matt Binder said that he was suspended despite never having tweeted any actual location information himself — rather, he posted a screenshot of a tweet from CNN’s O’Sullivan that was related to ElonJet.   

The New York Times called the suspensions “questionable and unfortunate,” and CNN characterised them as “impulsive and unjustified,” according to statements posted by CNN’s Oliver Darcy. 

Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee, said in a statement, the suspension “directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run a platform dedicated to free speech.”   

The Committee to Protect Journalists also expressed its concern about Twitter’s suspensions. “If confirmed as retaliation for their work, this would be a serious violation of journalists’ right to report the news without fear of reprisal,” the organisation said in a statement.   

Meanwhile, Koo founder and CEO Mayank Bidawatka said, “One of the Koo Twitter handle just got banned. For what? Because we compete with Twitter? How is this free speech and what world are we living in?”  

Koo has now garnered over 1 crore downloads on the Google Play Store, and the platform has already got a large catalogue of official Indian news publications on it as well along with some Indian government and celebrity handles as well.   

Twitter also suspended its open source competitor Mastodon whose minimal user interface (UI) looks like something of a cross between old Facebook and Twitter, but unlike Twitter and Facebook, Mastodon takes a decentralised approach.   

In a blog post on Tuesday co-founder Jack Dorsey criticized Twitter, for not upholding certain principles that did not explicitly mention Musk at any point. He said, "When I led it and the Twitter of today" failed to follow the concepts of social media being "resilient to corporate and government control" and moderation being "best implemented by algorithmic choice," as well as the original author being the sole entity who "may remove content they produce."   

Moreover, Dorsey announced that he will give grant of $1 million per year to Signal app to support 'open internet development'. In his post on Revue, Dorsey said that social media should not be "owned by a single company or group of companies."    

However, just a day after Jack Dorsey took to Revue to share his thoughts on the Twitter Files, the company announced it would shut down the newsletter platform early next year. "From January 18th, 2023, it will no longer be possible to access your Revue account," Revue said on Wednesday. "On that date, Revue will shut down and all data will be deleted."