{"id":23905,"date":"2022-12-16T02:19:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T02:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/16\/thursday-night-purge-elon-musks-twitter-bans-tons-of-high-profile-journalists\/"},"modified":"2022-12-16T02:19:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T02:19:17","slug":"thursday-night-purge-elon-musks-twitter-bans-tons-of-high-profile-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/16\/thursday-night-purge-elon-musks-twitter-bans-tons-of-high-profile-journalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday Night Purge: Elon Musk\u2019s Twitter Bans Tons Of High Profile Journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

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from the today-i-settled-all-family-business<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

Well. Just after finishing that last post about Twitter banning the official Mastodon account<\/a> on Twitter for tweeting about the ElonJet tracking account existing on Mastodon, it seems that whatever brakes or controls were in place at the new \u201cfree speech absolutist\u201d Twitter have really come off. In quick succession, a whole bunch of high profile reporter accounts were suspended, including Aaron Rupar (who famously covers and quotes videos of high profile politicians), Drew Harwell from the Washington Post, Ryan Mac from the NY Times, Donie Sullivan from CNN, and Matt Binder from Mashable.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not entirely clear what \u201cpolicy\u201d these accounts violated. For all of Elon\u2019s talk about transparency, there doesn\u2019t seem to be very much here. A few of the accounts had talked about<\/em> the ElonJet controversy but it\u2019s not clear that they linked to it.<\/p>\n

In Donie\u2019s case, his last tweet had been posting the police report<\/em> from the LAPD in response to questions about Elon Musk\u2019s claim that a stalker had jumped on a car with one of his children inside. The LAPD statement said:<\/p>\n

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LAPD\u2019s Threat Management Unit (TMU) is aware of the situation and tweet by Elon Musk and is in contact with his representatives and security team. No crime reports have been filed yet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And then he got banned.<\/p>\n

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Binder\u2019s final tweet was noting what Donie\u2019s final tweet was before getting banned.<\/p>\n

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So, look, again, content moderation at scale is impossible to do well<\/a>, yada yada yada. But, uh, I\u2019d sure like some Twitter Files on what\u2019s going on here. <\/p>\n

Either way, it would be nice<\/em> if Musk\u2019s supporters began to realize that (1) maybe this isn\u2019t as easy as \u201cno moderation\u201d and (2) maybe the old Twitter wasn\u2019t really evilly censoring their ideological viewpoints after all\u2026 but I fear that most are going to instead not care at all and (1) cheer on this removal of \u201cthe corporate media fake news elite\u201d and (2) come up with some ridiculous excuse about how it\u2019s not really a free speech issue at all.<\/p>\n

But, of course, all of that is bullshit. Elon is free to do what he wants. Just as the old Twitter was. But, we can still call out what appears to be hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

Update: <\/strong>The purge continues. Micah Lee, Tony Webster and Keith Olbermann are three more reporters now gone from Twitter.<\/p>\n

\nFiled Under: aaron rupar<\/a>, content moderation<\/a>, donie sullivan<\/a>, drew harwell<\/a>, elon musk<\/a>, matt binder<\/a>, reporters<\/a>, ryan mac<\/a>
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Companies: twitter<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n