{O/C}
Stalk Elon Musk online and you'll get suspended.
That from Twitter's flamboyant new owner who has finally restored the Twitter accounts of several journalists which were banned yesterday over alleged "doxxing".
{Take SOT}
Musk tweeted the results of his Twitter poll that showed a majority of the respondents wanted the accounts reinstated immediately.
This, after he barred an account called "Elonjet" on Wednesday. that divulged his private jet's whereabouts using publicly available data.
Twitter followed that up by changing its privacy policy, saying whoever publicises a user's public data without consent violates the policy.
Then Musk suspended the accounts of journalists from various news agencies in a contentious move.
But press freedom is no excuse, insists Musk.
{Soundbite}
Voice of ELON MUSK, Owner of Twitter:
So...no special treatment. You dox, you dox, you get suspended. End of story.
{VO}
Critics dished it right back.
{Soundbite}
AARON RUPAR, Independence Journalist Suspended From Twitter:
It seemed like beyond being critics of Elon the one thing that all of us had in common was that we had linked to the Facebook page tracking his private jet.
{Soundbite}
JODIE GINSBERG, President of Committee To Protect Journalists:
When you create an environment in which essentially you're saying, "Journalists... I don't like, can't report," it's not just those journalists from those big organisations who're affected, it creates a knock-on effect, it creates an enabling environment in which frankly governments feel enabled and empowered to shut down reporting.
{VO}
And evidently, the chaos is festering as the spokespersons of the New York Times and CNN blasted Twitter's suspension of their journalists' accounts.
In a series of fiery tweets later in the day, Musk said, "Criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not."
The irony is, Musk had promised to let free speech reign on Twitter and had welcomed back accounts that were previous suspended for hateful rhetoric.
The United Nations sounded off the alarm saying Musk's move only serves to further jeopardise press freedom.
{Soundbite}
STEPHANE DUJARRIC, United Nations Spokesperson:
Media voices should not be silenced on a platform that professes to be a space for freedom of speech.
From our standpoint the move sets a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats, and even worse.
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