Twitter accounts belonging to several prominent journalists covering the company’s owner, Elon Musk, have had their accounts abruptly suspended.
Reporters for The New York Times, CNN and Washington Post are among those who found themselves locked out of their accounts on Thursday evening.
A Twitter spokeswoman told tech website The Verge that the ban was related to the live sharing of location data.
It comes after Mr Musk vowed to sue the owner of a profile that tracks his jet.
The list of banned journalists also includes The Intercept’s Micha Lee, Mashable’s Matt Binder, and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, and Tony Webster.
A spokesman for The New York Times called the suspensions “questionable and unfortunate”, and said neither the paper nor reporter Ryan Mac received any explanation for the action.
CNN said the “impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters…is concerning but not surprising”. It has asked Twitter for an explanation and will “re-evaluate our relationship based on that response”.
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, whose account was among those suspended, said the move was significant for “the potential chilling impact” it could have for journalists, particularly those who cover Mr Musk’s other companies.
Mr Musk did not comment directly on the suspensions, but said in a tweet that “criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not”.
He added that accounts engaged in doxxing, which refers to the release of private information about individuals online, receive a temporary seven-day suspension.”
Same doxxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else,” he tweeted. “They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service.”
He added: “If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!” (BBC)
