Elon Musk said late Friday that he will bring back some journalists’ suspended Twitter accounts. He did this after saying that they put his family in danger.
After suspending the accounts of more than a dozen well-known journalists from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, Musk drew the ire and threats of the EU and UN.
“The conversation is over. “The suspension of the accounts that doxxed my location has been lifted,” Twitter’s creator tweeted.
Musk polled Twitter users to decide whether he should reinstate the suspended accounts right away or wait a week. Nearly 59 percent of the 3.69 million participants in the survey thought he should open the accounts right away.
Aaron Rupar, a former Vox journalist, appeared to be tweeting once again from some of the blocked accounts.
Rupar wrote, “I was originally pretty disappointed about getting suspended but quickly realised it’d be alright because I’m privileged to have an awesome internet community.”
The most recent issue started when Musk suspended @elonjet, an account that followed the flights of his private plane, on Wednesday.
Musk seemed to blame the incident on the fact that his jet was being tracked. He said that the move was necessary because “a crazy stalker” was following a car carrying one of his children in Los Angeles.
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Some of the journalists had written about the situation, including tweets that Musk said amounted to “assassination coordinates” against him and his family and linked to the @elonjet account, which has since been suspended.
Musk claimed in a live Twitter conversation that “everyone will be treated the same” and that “you’re not special because you’re a journalist,” but offered no supporting proof for his assertion.
Musk halted the meeting after being pressed further on his claims. The chat function, Twitter Spaces, was subsequently shut off.
The European Union, the United Nations, and the media were all very angry with Musk for suspending the accounts of the journalists.
Vera Jourova, an EU commissioner, wrote on Twitter that “news regarding the arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is alarming,” expressing concern that Twitter would be subject to severe fines under European law.
“Elon Musk ought to be conscious of that. Red lines are present. sanctions, shortly,” she added.
a “dangerous precedent at a time when journalists around the world are experiencing censorship, physical threats, and even worse,” according to UN leader Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson.
Since Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter ownership, primarily through the sale of shares in his profitable electric car company Tesla, the company has lurched from one controversy to the next.
Major advertisers have shunned the billionaire’s claims of free speech, and regulators have taken notice.
In addition to attacking Anthony Fauci, the departing senior advisor for the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a frequent target of abuse in right-wing media, Musk has restored the account of former US President Donald Trump.
CNN says that the former head of trust and safety at Twitter ran away after Musk made false claims about how Twitter filters content.
More than half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees lost their jobs as a result of a purge Musk ordered, and now many of them are suing the SpaceX and Tesla billionaire in court.
Musk once gave the impression that he was going to war with Apple over the App Store, only to subsequently claim via Twitter that there had been a “misunderstanding.”
Insider Intelligence, a market watcher, predicted that Twitter would lose users.
According to Insider Intelligence researcher Jasmine Enberg, there won’t be a single cataclysmic incident that brings an end to Twitter.
Instead, people will abandon the network over the next year, disillusioned with the platform’s technological difficulties and the spread of offensive or otherwise objectionable content.
