Twitter CEO Elon Musk hopped into a chat on the social media platform where a group of journalists were complaining about his decision to ban some of their colleagues for allegedly doxing him and his family, going on to inform the self-entitled whiners that they “aren’t special.” Wouldn’t you loved to have seen the look on their faces when he put them in their place? That would have been worth the price of a movie ticket easily. They probably blew steam out of their ears.
The Daily Wire reported that the journalists met in a Twitter Spaces chat not long after Musk suspended the accounts of several fairly high-profile reporters who were assigned to cover him for their outlets. These individuals had posted links to another account that was suspended by Musk which tracks his private jet in real time. Musk grew concerned about all of this after a frightening incident occurred involving his toddler-aged son.
“I’m sure everyone who’s been doxed would agree, showing real-time information about somebody’s location is inappropriate, and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them, and there’s not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists and regular people,” Musk went on to say after dropping in on the chat. “Everyone’s going to be treated the same. You’re not special because you’re a journalist, you’re just a Twitter [user] — you’re a citizen. So, no special treatment. You dox, you get suspended, end of story.”
“Accounts that were suspended included former Vox journalist Aaron Rupar, CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan, New York Times reporter Ryan Mac, Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell, The Intercept journalist Micah Lee, and hardcore leftist Keith Olbermann. It was not immediately clear if all had committed the same violation,” the report said.
(1) As a person with 24/7 security to protect my family, I'm highly sympathetic to Musk's attempt to quash doxxing BUT
(2) Doxxing typically refers to giving people's real-time location, not speculating about publicly available flight information, as @esaagar points out.— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 16, 2022
Earlier on in the day, the new Twitter boss posted a tweet revealing his reason for suspending the accounts.
“They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service,” Musk shared.
BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos is the one who hosted the Twitter Spaces chat, along with Harwell, who pushed back against Musk.
“You’re suggesting that we were sharing your address, which is not true,” Harwell stated.
“It is true,” Musk responded.
“I never posted your address,” Harwell fired back, going on to add that he had reported on the banning of ElonJet, the site dedicated to tracking Musk’s jet, but which had been suspended from the platform.
“Harwell accused Musk of hypocrisy after the billionaire had criticized the platform for censoring stories critical to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden prior to the 2020 election,” the Daily Wire report said.
“Musk said posting a link to real-time information that could put him, his family, or anyone else in danger is the same as posting the information directly,” it continued.
“Ban evasion, trying to be clever about it, like ‘Oh, I posted a link to the real-time information,’ that is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning, that is no different from … actually showing real-time information,” Musk said.
“You dox, you get suspended, end of story, that’s it,” Musk repeated before leaving the chat.
Earlier this week, Musk said that a stalker targeted the vehicle that was carrying his son in Los Angeles. Apparently, a man in a mask blocked the car and then climbed up on the hood. That’s a pretty scary situation, so it’s not surprising to see Musk react the way he has. Someone essentially threatened his family by their actions. Is it any wonder he doesn’t want people to know where he is?
Anyone recognize this person or car? pic.twitter.com/2U0Eyx7iwl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
“Conservatives had voiced mixed opinions about Musk’s new round of suspensions, with some relishing seeing liberals kicked off the platform after years of Twitter only meting out such punishment to conservatives. However, other conservatives have expressed uneasiness about suspensions based on, at best, a gray area of Twitter’s terms of service,” the report concluded.
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