Following a poll result on Twitter in favour of restoring accounts of recently suspended journalists, Elon Musk announces he will reinstate all of the accounts on the platform.
Elon Musk has said he will reinstate the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended in a controversy over publishing public data about the billionaire’ s plane.
“The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,” he tweeted on Saturday.
A Twitter poll created by Musk earlier in the day showed that the majority of respondents were in favour of ending the suspensions.
The suspensions stemmed from a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk’s private plane using publicly available information.
On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets, despite Musk’s previous tweet saying he would not suspend ElonJet in the name of free speech.
Shortly after, Twitter changed its privacy policy to prohibit the sharing of “live location information.”
Then on Thursday evening, several journalists, including from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, were suspended from Twitter without notice or explanation.
READ MORE: Elon Musk says Twitter suspended accounts of journalists for ‘doxxing’
The people have spoken.
Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now. https://t.co/MFdXbEQFCe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2022
Everybody sticking around Twitter because they didn’t want to cede the space should probably take account of this Thursday Night Massacre and move their main posting elsewhere.
You can find me at:https://t.co/tRrvGDI7UV https://t.co/YLWzu6BgWW
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) December 16, 2022
Global backlash
Twitter’s unprecedented suspensions had drawn swift backlash from government officials, advocacy groups and press organisations across the globe.
Officials from France, Germany, Britain and the European Union condemned the suspensions, with some saying the platform was jeopardising press freedom.
Melissa Fleming, head of communications for the United Nations, tweeted she was “deeply disturbed” by the suspensions and that “media freedom is not a toy.”
Deeply disturbed by reports of journalists being arbitrarily suspended from Twitter.
Media freedom is not a toy. A free press is the cornerstone of democratic societies and a key tool in the fight against harmful disinformation.
— Melissa Fleming
(@MelissaFleming) December 16, 2022
The German Foreign Office warned Twitter that the ministry had a problem with moves that jeopardised press freedom.
Roland Lescure, the French minister of industry, tweeted on Friday that, following Musk’s suspension of journalists, he would suspend his own activity on Twitter.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Elon Musk says he will reinstate suspended journalists’ accounts after poll
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