{"id":24088,"date":"2022-12-16T20:04:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T20:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/16\/elon-musk-shows-off-free-speech-commitment-by-banning-journalists\/"},"modified":"2022-12-16T20:04:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T20:04:34","slug":"elon-musk-shows-off-free-speech-commitment-by-banning-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/16\/elon-musk-shows-off-free-speech-commitment-by-banning-journalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk shows off free speech commitment by banning journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Under self-proclaimed \u201cfree speech absolutist<\/a>\u201d and CEO Elon Musk, Twitter has banned the accounts of several people, including journalists that were critical of him. The platform completely shut down the popular Spaces feature after journalists confronted Musk in a Space, and also suspended the account of rival social media network Mastodon. Moreover, Twitter now marks links to Mastodon as \u201cpotentially harmful<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

These very obviously pro-free speech moves come after Twitter suspended the \u2018@ElonJet\u2019 account run by \u2018@jxckSweeney,\u2019 whose account was also suspended. As a quick refresher, Musk has had an issue with Sweeney and the ElonJet account for a while since the account shared publicly available information about which airports Musk\u2019s private jet flew to. Since then, Twitter has banned other accounts that track flight locations, including some that track other billionaires like Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. Sweeney operated many of the accounts.<\/p>\n

On December 14th, Musk claimed a stalker used information from the ElonJet account to follow a car carrying Musk\u2019s son, X \u00c6 A-Xii, thinking Musk was in the car. However, the LA Times\u00a0<\/em>reported that no crime reports about the incident had been filed with the LAPD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.<\/p>\n

Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Shortly after, Twitter hastily introduced a new policy banning accounts from sharing other people\u2019s private information<\/a>, such as \u201creal-time and\/or same-day\u201d location information (sometimes called \u2018doxxing\u2019). The policy also covers links to third-party URL(s), which is likely at least part of the reason why Twitter is blocking links to Mastodon \u2014 Twitter suspended Mastodon\u2019s Twitter account<\/a> after it shared a link to ElonJet\u2019s Mastodon account. Moreover, several of the journalists who received suspensions shared links to ElonJet on other platforms like Mastodon.<\/p>\n

Banned journalists join a Twitter Space, Musk kills Spaces<\/h2>\n

The Verge<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>reports that several of the banned journalists were able to join a Twitter Space on December 15th where they discussed what was going on. Musk also joined the Space and answered some questions. During the conversation, Musk accused journalists who posted links to ElonJet on other platforms were evading the ban, which is why they also got banned.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post\u2019s <\/em>Drew Harwell asked Musk how his decision to ban ElonJet and accounts sharing links to ElonJet differed from Twitter\u2019s treatment of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, something Musk previously called \u201cincredibly inappropriate<\/a>.\u201d As a reminder, Twitter blocked links to the\u00a0New York Post\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>story about the alleged Hunter Biden laptop \u2014 that event became a cornerstone of Musk\u2019s first \u2018Twitter Files\u2019 release, which included internal Twitter documents about the moderation decision.<\/p>\n

Musk responded to Harwell by saying, \u201cYou dox, you get suspended. End of story, that\u2019s it.\u201d He then left the Twitter Space. Since then, Twitter shut down the Spaces feature<\/a> \u2014 Musk claimed in a tweet that Spaces was shut down to fix a \u201clegacy bug<\/a>\u201d and that the feature should return on December 17th. Presumably, that legacy bug was the ability for banned accounts to join a Space.<\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019d be remiss not to point out that Musk\u2019s new anti-doxxing stance apparently doesn\u2019t appear to apply to him or his allies. For example, the first Twitter Files release<\/a> doxed Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey\u2019s email address, while Musk himself posted a video of the alleged stalker<\/a>, which included the person\u2019s licence plate, and asked if anybody recognized the person. And if you need more proof that Musk is a hypocrite, here\u2019s his tweet from November 6th, 2022, saying he was so committed to free speech he wouldn\u2019t ban the account following his plane<\/a> (plus a screenshot below in case Musk decides to delete the tweet, as he tends to do).<\/p>\n

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Per\u00a0The Verge<\/em><\/a>, Musk ran a poll asking if he should unsuspend accounts that \u201cdoxxed my exact location in real-time,\u201d but the \u2018now\u2019 option won was winning with about 43 percent support. Musk then tweeted there were \u201ctoo many options\u201d and restarted the poll with the options \u2018Now\u2019 and \u2018In 7 days.\u2019 At the time of writing, \u2018Now\u2019 was winning with 58.6 percent of the vote. Musk certainly likes to base moderation decisions on polls, such as when he broke his promise and reinstated former U.S. president Donald Trump\u2019s Twitter account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Screenshot of Musk\u2019s redone poll. Via: The Verge<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

EU sanctions<\/h2>\n

Finally, the EU is planning to sanction Twitter over the arbitrary bans, with the EU Commission\u2019s vice president of values and transparency, Vera Journova, tweeting that the suspension of journalists \u201cis worrying.\u201d<\/p>\n

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News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. EU\u2019s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our #MediaFreedomAct<\/a>. @elonmusk<\/a> should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon.<\/p>\n

\u2014 V\u011bra Jourov\u00e1 (@VeraJourova) December 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to\u00a0Mashable<\/em><\/a>, tweets from some suspended journalists didn\u2019t violate Twitter\u2019s policy, including the publication\u2019s own Matt Binder. Binder said his account was suspended after sharing a screenshot of a tweet from CNN\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Donie O\u2019Sullivan about the LAPD\u2019s statement regarding Musk\u2019s stalker claims.<\/p>\n

So, to sum things up: Twitter banned the ElonJet account after Musk said he wouldn\u2019t ban it, banned journalists who tweeted about ElonJet getting booted, banned rival social media platform Mastodon that was hosting the ElonJet account, as well as put warning labels on links to Mastodon. Now the EU Commission is looking into what\u2019s going on and might sanction Twitter over the suspensions.<\/p>\n

You can keep up with all things Musk and Twitter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Via: @VeraJourova, <\/a>The Verge<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n