Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk kicked a number of journalists and leftist commentator Keith Olbermann off Twitter for sharing content from an account posting information from his private flights.
The gang was suspended Thursday night after Musk promised to seek legal action against the man who allegedly ran the tracking account due to a situation with a “crazy stalker” who climbed on top of a car carrying Musk’s son.
“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info,” explained Musk. “Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.”
Numerous journalists could no longer reportedly log into their accounts just hours later.
Among those now not allowed to access the platform were Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of the Washington Post, Ryan Mac of the New York Times, and independent journalist Aaron Rupar.
Musk justified his suspension, writing online, “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else.”
“They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service,” the tech mogul added.
They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Some have criticized Musk’s decision, arguing the action appeared arbitrary and went against Musk’s stated mission of bringing free speech to the platform, reported Blaze Media. The outlet said that Musk had said he would allow the account to post his location information prior to his acquisition of Twitter.
“My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” Musk posted online at the time.
Olbermann was banned from the platform after he attempted to get his followers to share a link from the post of the Washington Post’s now-suspended Drew Harrell.
Disgraced media outlet CNN discussed the suspension of one of its own correspondents, Donie O’Sullivan, in a segment uploaded to its YouTube channel Friday.
