Elon Musk had earlier reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the billionaire’s plane
Days after Elon Musk suspended and then restored journalists’ accounts on Twitter, Washington Post tech writer Taylor Lorenz said she was suspended from the platform on December 17 after she contacted the owner of the microblogging site for comments for a story.
Lorenz joined the platform in 2010 and had more than 340,000 followers before her account—@TaylorLorenz— was suspended, a report on the entertainment website Variety said. She then moved to @nodreamsoflabor but that, too, was banned, the report said.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
“Earlier tonight, Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account. I received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated,” Lorenz wrote on Substack publishing platform.
Also Read | Ban them, now un-ban them: At Twitter, Elon Musk is consistent about his inconsistency
She added that the Twitter account had only three live tweets before suspension — one of which was a request for comment from Musk for an undisclosed story, saying: “We’ve learned some information that we’d like to share and discuss with you.” The other two posts were links to her TikTok and Instagram profiles.
(Image Source: Taylor Lorenz Substack)
Lorenz said she was working on the story with WaPo colleague Drew Harwell, who was among the journalists banned by Twitter on December 15 and then unbanned on December 16.
Also Read | Musk seeks new Twitter investors at same price he paid
On TikTok, she also posted a video stating: “Super crazy. Elon seems to banning anyone who disagrees with him.” Later on Instagram, she posted a photo with New York Times reporter Ryan Mac in which their hands covered their mouths.
Twitter or Musk did not respond to Variety’s request for comments.
‘Thursday Night massacre’
Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the location of maverick billionaire’s plane.
A Twitter poll that Musk conducted later also showed that a majority of the respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately.
The reinstatements came after the suspensions evoked stinging criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalists, with some saying the microblogging platform was jeopardising press freedom.
Also Read | No more ‘Twitter for iPhone’, ‘Twitter for Android’ labels, confirms Elon Musk
The episode, which a well-known security researcher labelled the ”Thursday Night Massacre”, is being regarded by critics as a fresh evidence of Musk, who calls himself a ”free speech absolutist”, eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes.
The suspensions stemmed from a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk’s private plane using publicly available information.
On December 15, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets despite Musk’s saying in a previous tweet he would not suspend ElonJet. Shortly after, Twitter changed its privacy policy to prohibit the sharing of “live location information”.
Also Read | Twitter manually reviewed all accounts that posted links to ElonJet
Journalists whose Twitter accounts were suspended — and have not been reinstated — include Fox Business correspondent Susan Li (@susanlitv), and Insider’s Linette Lopez (@lopezlinette).
