Twitter CEO Elon Musk wages war on the freedom of press and the 1st Amendment by suspending prominent journalists critical of him

Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann, and Donie O'Sullivan are just a few journalists unfairly suspended by Musk

Dec 16, 2022

Right-wing power-hungry tyrant Twitter CEO Elon Musk, despite dishonestly claiming to be a “free speech advocate”, attacked the freedom of the press and the 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech by wrongfully suspending prominent Musk critics on Twitter for “doxxing” using a flimsy pretense justifying it under the auspices of posting “assassination coordinates” to suspend the accounts of Aaron Rupar, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, and former ESPN and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, just to name a few.

The fact that Musk is suspending his prominent critics from Twitter while letting far-right actors-- some of whom were banned pre-Musk and have been reinstated-- get away with impunity is pure hypocrisy.

Mariella Moon at Endgadget:

Several journalists across various publications have found themselves unable to access their Twitter accounts tonight. They've been suspended on the website, and according to NBC News Senior Reporter Ben Collins, one thing they had in common was that they covered the social network and Elon Musk, who once described himself as a "free speech absolutist." Collins listed the suspended journalists' accounts on a Twitter thread, including CNN's Donie O'Sullivan whose last tweets included his interview with Jack Sweeney, the college student who ran the @ElonJet account.
The Washington Post's Drew Harwell lost his account following a tweet about how Twitter suspended Mastodon, its rival social network that's been gaining popularity since Musk took over, after it posted a link to the account that tracked Musk's private jet. The New York Times' Ryan Mac lost access to his account after talking about Sweeney and Twitter's policy changes following @ElonJet's suspension. Mashable's Matt Binder also found himself suspended after retweeting a post doubting Musk's claim that he and his son were followed by a "crazy stalker" and another about how Twitter's new head of trust and safety invited a QAnon-adjacent group to discuss a partnership.
Next in the list is Micah Flee from The Intercept who recently tweeted: "So much more arbitrary censorship on Twitter since @elonmusk took over." Sports and political commentator Keith Olbermann was suspended while one of Engadget's editors was reading a thread on his account. Olbermann's last tweets also included criticisms of Musk's announcement that he's taking legal action against Sweeney and Twitter's policy changes after the suspension of the Musk's stalker incident. Aaron Rupar, an independent journalist who was also suspended, posted a response on Substack and said he tweeted that the "@ElonJet account that was suspended from Twitter was still active on Facebook, with a link to the Facebook page."

Kari Paul, Lois Beckett, and Josh Taylor at The Guardian:

While journalists for major news outlets, like himself, may not be substantially harmed by the loss of their Twitter accounts, other journalists who cover Musk and his companies could be, O’Sullivan said.
“I do think about the potential chilling impact this might have for freelance journalists, independent journalists,” O’Sullivan said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists also said it was concerned about the reports and if it was confirmed as retaliation for the journalists’ work, would be a “serious violation of journalists’ right to report the news without fear of reprisal”.
Twitter also appears to now ban links to its social media rival Mastodon, which grew in popularity after Musk’s takeover of Twitter. An error returns with a notification that the link to Mastodon has been “identified” as “potentially harmful” by Twitter or its partners.
“Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” Musk tweeted on Thursday night, in response to a comment from another tech journalist that Musk “has begun banning journalists who have criticized him”.
In a series of subsequent tweets, Musk added that the “same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else” and wrote, “They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service.”
Musk did not clarify in what way he believed the news reporters who were suspended had shared his “exact real-time location”.

Earlier this week, I wrote on Substack about Musk’s pandering to QAnon cultists.

Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:

On Thursday night, Twitter—abruptly, and without notice or warning—began banning or permanently suspending the accounts of journalists. Those known to be affected so far span a wide variety of leading media platforms, including CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, as well as online platforms like substack. All that these writers appear to have in common is that they recently reported on stories connected to Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
Some of those banned had connections with the story of the “@ElonJet” account, which Twitter banned for publishing public information about the flight schedules of Elon’s personal jet. Others reported on a post that Musk himself made earlier in the day in which he claimed that a stalker had pursued a car that he owned, believing that he was inside. Some of those banned did nothing but report on the banning of other journalist.
[…]
The full list includes:
Aaron Rupar: Substack author and popular Twitter presence whose account was taken down for reasons unknown.
Drew Harwell: Washington Post technology reporter. Reason unknown.
Ryan Mac: New York Times technology reporter. Recently posted concerning the ElonJet story.
Donie O’Sullivan: CNN reporter. Last post was a story about Elon’s claim that a “crazy stalker” had followed a car in which his son was a passenger.
Matt Binder: Mashable reporter. Final post was noting O’Sullivan’s suspension.
Tony Webster: independent journalist.
Micah Lee: Intercept reporter.
Steve Herman: Voice of America reporter.
Keith Olbermann: former MSNBC host and sports journalist. Last post was retweeting those of suspended journalists.

Musk is not content with attacking journalists critical of him, but also labeling Mastodon links as “potentially harmful” and banning competitor Mastodon’s Twitter account.

Taylor Hatmaker at TechCrunch:

Twitter apparently suspended its open source competitor Mastodon from the service on Thursday afternoon. Just prior to its suspension, Mastodon (@joinmastodon) tweeted a link to the jet tracking account on its own service, according to archives.
Update: As of 6:30 PM PT, many links to Mastodon no longer work on Twitter, which flags them as "potentially harmful." Tweeted links to some servers without Mastodon's name in the domain still appeared to work in our testing. Banned domains include mstdn.social and mastodon.social, while links to journa.host and others still work.
Many Twitter users added a Mastodon profile link into their bios as the Twitter alternative picked up steam. Now, any links to blocked Mastodon servers are disabled and accompanied by the text "Warning: this link may be unsafe."
[…]
Musk's personal and political preferences have guided a number of Twitter policy decisions since the company's hands-on new owner took over. While Musk initially declared that Twitter would allow any content that isn't illegal, he's since disallowed specific accounts for personal reasons.
Musk reinstated a wave of high-profile Nazis and white supremacists earlier this month but drew the line at Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, citing his personal experience of fatherhood.
On Mastodon, a federated, open source Twitter alternative, a single individual can't set the rules for the whole platform. Mastodon's servers — separate but open instances of the social network — are run by individuals who can set rules, but users can also decamp to a different server if they don't agree with those choices.

Follow me at these places, should my Twitter vanish:
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@JGibsonDem
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jgibsondem
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jgibsondem/
Facebook (news and commentary): https://www.facebook.com/JustinsPoliticalCorner/
Facebook (personal): https://www.facebook.com/Justin.T.Gibson
Tumblr: https://justinspoliticalcorner.tumblr.com/

I have some parting words for Evil Elmo (aka Elon Musk): Vox Populi, Vox Dei my hiney!

Song:

Foo Fighters
“Making A Fire”
Medicine At Midnight (2021)

Also in the news:

The JGibson Report

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