Several high-profile journalists have been suspended on Twitter for going against the platform’s doxxing rule.
The company’s CEO Elon Musk via a tweet disclosed that the suspended accounts engaged in doxxing by disclosing his real-time location thereby endangering his family.
He further stated that the suspended accounts will receive a temporary 7-day suspension.
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See what he tweeted; “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not. Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7-day suspension”.
Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Musk however did not clarify in what way the suspended journalists shared his exact real-time location.
In a recent Twitter space event, he was questioned about the ban which he stated that the affected journalists were not being treated differently to other citizens, noting that if any user doxx they will get suspended.
Taking to his Twitter account, Musk created a poll, asking users whether the ban of the suspended journalist should be lifted now, tomorrow, in seven days or longer. The poll went in favour of Now with 43%, having the highest votes than the rest option.
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
The Tesla billionaire who seemed to be displeased with the results, hinted that he will redo another poll due to too many options. In the recent poll, he presented only two options, “Now and In 7 days”, which Now had the highest votes with a 60% score.
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
The suspended journalist’s accounts are Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America, and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann, and Tony Webster.
The suspension of these high-profile journalists’ accounts comes a day after Musk suspended the account that tracks his private jet. This spurred him to update the platform’s doxxing rule policy.
Twitter doxxing rule policy states that users may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission. It also prohibits threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.
The platform further stated that sharing an individual’s live location increases the risk of physical harm. Hence it will not hesitate to remove Tweets that share such information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.
Lately, Musk seems to be going hard on users who divulge to the public any of his private info which he disclosed exposes his family to attack.
Recall that on Thursday, the Tesla billionaire took strict measures by suspending a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, which he described as a breach of privacy.
The account @Elonjet which has more than one million followers was run by a Florida college student Jack Sweeney, who uses publicly available data to track the whereabouts of Elon Musk’s private jet.
Despite suspending the account, Musk threatened to take legal action against the user behind the account.
Several users on the platform have called him out for backtracking on his promise to allow free speech, which he had earlier disclosed that the account that tracks his private jet will not be suspended during his takeover of the company.