Musk Promises to Restore Journalists' Twitter Accounts

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has announced that, according to a poll, the Twitter accounts of journalists from major U.S. publications that were suspended on December 16 for seven days will be restored immediately. Earlier, The New York Times reported that the Twitter leadership had suspended the accounts of several journalists from leading American media for seven days.

Musk explained that the owners of the blocked accounts had posted his location in real-time, which is an obvious violation of social network rules. He noted that the same rules apply to the dissemination of personal information with malicious intent against journalists as they do for everyone else.

It was previously reported that on Thursday, Twitter froze the social media accounts of journalists from leading U.S. media who had written about Twitter's operations. The blocked accounts belong to journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN. Besides CNN employee Doni O'Sullivan, accounts belonging to The Washington Post's Drew Harwell, The New York Times' Ryan Mac, independent journalist Aaron Rupar, and the Twitter account of the competing social network Mastodon were also blocked.

As expected, the sanctions are related to Twitter's decision to prohibit the publication of another person's current location without their consent. The journalists who lost their accounts had written about Musk's new policy days prior. They had also reported on the billionaire's family in Los Angeles.

Musk himself indirectly confirmed these assumptions, stating: “Journalists are subject to the same doxxing rules as everyone else,” he wrote on Friday evening.

CNN described Twitter's decision as “reckless and unjustified” and spoke of increasing instability and unpredictability on the platform. “We have asked Twitter to explain its actions, and depending on the response, we will reassess our relationship,” the network wrote on Twitter.