Elon Musk’s decision to abruptly suspend several journalists from Twitter on Friday sparked outrage from First Amendment advocates, threats of sanctions from European regulators, and questions about the social media platform’s future as a hub for news and ideas.
But as people debated complex, new issues of free speech and online censorship, the move also underlined the role of a simpler, more enduring element of American life: the press lord.
Hello Citizen Musk.
As with William Randolph Hearst and Rupert Murdoch before him, Mr. Musk now an influential mode of mass media production. Twitter, while a different beast from newspapers and TV networks, lured journalists by promoting itself as a virtual town square. Now Mr. Musk, despite his stated wish “that even my worst critics stay on Twitter,” flexes his ownership muscle in seemingly arbitrary ways, seeming to weed out accounts that personally displease him.
The suspensions – including reporters from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post – were short. Many of the accounts were reactivated late Friday, after Mr Musk conducted an informal survey of Twitter users on the matter.
Twitter had suspended the journalists after Musk accused them of violating Twitter’s rules about violating privacy. Twitter had recently shut down an account, @ElonJet, which tracked the whereabouts of Mr Musk’s private jet using publicly available flight data, after Mr Musk claimed a “mad stalker” accosted a car in which one of his sons was traveling used to be.
‘You are not special because you are a journalist; you’re a civilian, so no special treatment,” Musk told reporters during a terse Twitter audio session on Thursday. He added, using a term for publishing intrusive personal information: “You doxx, you get suspended, end of story.”
More on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover
But it was not clear how the journalists suspended by Mr Musk had violated Twitter’s policies. Some reporters had written about the removal of @ElonJet and other accounts tracking private jets, or associated with those accounts; some had previously written critical stories about Mr Musk’s stewardship over Twitter. On Friday, Twitter suspended the account of Linette Lopez, a reporter who has published investigations into Tesla, another company controlled by Mr. Musk.
Just last month, Mr. Musk that @ElonJet can stay on Twitter. He said the pledge demonstrated “my commitment to free speech,” a common refrain for Mr. Musk, who has amassed millions of online fans, in part by presenting himself as a First Amendment absolutist, determined to challenge perceived prejudices of the side of Twitter. previous administration.
Journalists’ participation in Twitter, a private company, does not equate to freedom of expression; reporters are free to publish their work on their own company’s platforms and through other social media channels.
For more than a decade, however, Twitter has played a unique role in the news and information ecosystem, where journalists flock to share their coverage, develop relationships with sources, and discuss current issues. It has also enabled writers outside established organizations to break into the political and cultural conversations.
In the wake of Mr Musk’s suspensions, media outlets said Twitter had acted arbitrarily in ways that could serve to intimidate journalists reporting on its companies. “If confirmed in retaliation for their work, this would be a serious violation of the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal,” Jodie Ginsberg, chair of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Friday. CNN called the suspensions “impulsive and unwarranted,” and The New York Times described the moves as “questionable.”
There was also opposition from lawmakers in the European Union. Vera Jourova, a vice-president of the European Commission, said the move violated the EU’s digital services law and media freedom law, which serves as a kind of rulebook for moderating online content. “There are red lines. And soon sanctions,” she said tweeted on Friday.
Mr. Musk firmly rejected that criticism. He mocked journalists for crying viciously, arguing that Twitter’s actions under its previous owners — such as the restriction on posts linking to a 2020 New York Post report on Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son, Hunter — amounted to censorship of conservative views.
“So inspiring to see the newfound love for freedom of speech by the press,” Mr Musk wrote in a Twitter post, suggesting that those reporters angered by the suspensions didn’t speak up when Twitter released certain posts about Covid and the presidential policy limited the platform had deemed misinformation.
Mr. Musk also has followers in Silicon Valley’s C-suites, where many tech founders and investors view his unorthodox management of Twitter with excitement, not contempt. These executives believe that Mr. Musk’s head-on clashes with his critics, such as dissenting employees and skeptical journalists, could provide a future model for technology leaders tired of relinquishing power to internal and external adversaries.
This week’s drama moved into a wider discussion about the role of social media platforms in determining what ideas circulate online. Mr. Musk, who did not respond to a request for comment, is a happy warrior in that debate; it motivated his release this month of the so-called Twitter Files, a trove of internal documents that he says shed light on Twitter’s past content moderation decisions.
One of the journalists to whom Mr. Musk entrusted those documents, Bari Weiss, said on Friday that she was troubled by Twitter’s decision to suspend reporters’ accounts.
“The old regime on Twitter ruled by its own whims and prejudices and it certainly looks like the new regime has the same problem,” said Ms Weiss, a former opinion writer and editor at The Times, who is the founder of an independent media site . , The Free Press. “I am against it in both cases. And I think those journalists who covered a public interest story should be reinstated.”
Mr. Musk seemed unimpressed with Ms. Weiss’ opinion; in a Twitter responsehe accused her of “virtue-signaling to show you’re ‘good’ in the eyes of the media elite to keep one foot in both worlds.”
It was unclear whether Mr Musk would eventually change course and reinstate the accounts of the suspended journalists. On Friday, Mr. Musk early its 121 million followers to vote for when accounts might be reinstated; by Friday night, nearly 60 percent of respondents had voted “now.” The count would take several hours.
This week’s developments have left some reporters wondering, not for the first time, whether Twitter’s days as the media’s preferred social platform are over and whether journalists should consider alternatives.
Naturally, the discussion played out on Twitter, with Mr. Musk, as usual, a very active participant. In a series of posts on Friday, Mr. Musk — who, like any proud press lord, keeps a close eye on his platform — joked, defended his views and attacked his critics. He highlighted a post from a user claiming that Twitter now had “more attention, press and power than ever.” with an approving bull’s-eye emoji.
Citizen Musk seemed to be having a good time.
Bernard Warner and Kate Konger reporting contributed.
