Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who recently wrote about its new owner Elon Musk, with the billionaire tweeting that rules banning the publishing of personal information applied to all, including journalists.
Responding to a Tweet on the account suspensions, Musk tweeted: “Same doxxing rules apply to journalists as to everyone else,” a reference to Twitter rules banning the sharing of personal information, called doxxing.
On Wednesday, Twitter suspended @elonjet, an account tracking Musk s private jet in real-time using data available in the public domain. Musk had threatened legal action against the account s operator, saying his son had been mistakenly followed by a “crazy stalker”.
Musk added on Thursday: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suspensions come after Musk has repeatedly vowed to uphold absolute free speech on the platform he bought for $44 billion in October. He reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, who had been suspended from Twitter over his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol.
“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means,” Musk tweeted in April.
After firing thousands of employees after Musk s $44 billion takeover in October, Twitter is operating with much-diminished staff. It is now leaning heavily on automation to moderate content, doing away with certain manual reviews and favoring restrictions on distribution rather than removing certain speech outright, its new head of trust and safety Ella Irwin told Reuters this month.
Twitter on Thursday showed “account suspended” notices for a clutch of journalists’ accounts. twitter Also Suspended Pakistan Journalist Dilbar Khan Twitter Account . It also suspended the official account of the social media company Mastodon (@joinmastodon), which has emerged as an alternative to Twitter since Musk bought it.
Earlier Owner of Twitter Elon Musk said that the social media giant will delete 1.5 billion inactive accounts with log-in for years to free space for names.
Elon Musk announces that the popular social media platform will soon delete up to 1.5 billion accounts to free space for names.
“These are obvious account deletions with no tweets and no log-in for years,” Musk added, taking to Twitter. However, the Tesla and SpaceX owner clarified that only those accounts will be deleted that have “no tweets and no log in for years”.
The move came just hours after Elon Musk announced that in a few weeks, they would release a ‘count show’ feature for tweets, similar to the one on videos.
Read More : Elon Musk says Twitter will Delete 1.5 Billion Inactive Accounts
