Elon Musk suspended one journalist from Twitter for “poking the billionaire,” according to one of those journalists.
During his Friday appearance on “CNN This Morning,” CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan criticized Musk’s action as an infringement of free speech.
“Coming from the free speech absolutist, who claims he wants this to be a beacon of free expression, it is pretty remarkable to see him exclude journalists who cover him critically. But I would also say fairly,” said O’Sullivan, a technology reporter for a cable network.
Musk dismissed a group of reporters who had been critical of him since his $44 billion acquisition of the social networking platform on Thursday night. Among those removed from the website were O’Sullivan, Ryan Mac of The New York Times, and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post.
Donie O’Sullivan, a reporter for CNN, was one of the journalists banned from Twitter by Elon Musk.
Some of the suspended accounts belonged to journalists who had recently reported or posted about the conflict between Elon Musk and @ElonJet, a Twitter account run by Jack Sweeney, a college sophomore in Florida, that follows Musk’s private aircraft flights.
This week, Musk altered Twitter’s location sharing policies and claimed that the accounts were suspended for “doxxing” him, or revealing private information about him on the site.
O’Sullivan expressed concern that Musk’s subjective content regulation may “chill” freelance journalists worldwide.
“I’m concerned about the chilling impact this could have on those reporters,” O’Sullivan said, “especially considering that Musk also owns Tesla and SpaceX.” “What if you’re reporting on perhaps bad working conditions in Germany or elsewhere? “Is he going to stomp on it because he says, “Oh, that’s against the rules?”
Elon Musk banned a small number of journalists, claiming they “doxxed” him.
Twitter did not immediately respond to comment inquiries.
Musk briefly joined a Twitter Spaces conference chat on Thursday night, where he was inundated with questions from prohibited media.
When one of the reporters pointed out that what he had stated was not in reality “doxxing,” he immediately terminated the conversation.
Harwell denied disclosing information on Musk’s current whereabouts, stating that he solely reported on the suspension of the @ElonJet account.
O’Sullivan expressed concern that Musk’s prohibition could have a “chilling effect” on other journalists with lesser platforms.
Musk asserted, “There is no special treatment for journalists.”
“If you dox, you will be suspended,” he warned before quickly exiting the discussion.
»CNN reporter suspended from Twitter: “I jabbed the millionaire.”«