Elon Musk said this Friday that he would restore the accounts of several journalists, suspended in Twitter after accusing them of endangering his family.
“The people have spoken,” wrote the tycoon after the uproar caused by his decision. Musk organized a poll on Twitter asking users if he should rehabilitate the accounts “now” or “in a week.” Nearly 59% of the 3.69 million participants voted to do so immediately.
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
According to a report from AFPthe tycoon aroused outrage and warnings from the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) after suspending the accounts of more than half a dozen journalists, some from media such as CNN, The New York Times either The Washington Post.
Musk, also the owner of SpaceX and Tesla, justified the decision by claiming that the vehicle carrying one of his children through Los Angeles was chased by a “crazy stalker”, an incident that he appeared to attribute to monitoring his private plane, according to the agency. French.
In a live forum organized on Twitter on Friday, Musk did not provide evidence of his complaints and told some of the affected journalists — who were able to participate in the platform’s discussion spaces — that they were not going to receive special treatment for being reporters.
“Everyone is going to be treated in the same way (…) You are not special because you are journalists,” said the businessman. But when questioned to give more details about his accusations, Musk decided to end the discussion and left the forum.
“The news about the suspension of journalists from Twitter is worrying (…) Elon Musk should take note of this. There are red lines. And, soon, there will be sanctions,” said the European Commissioner for Transparency, Vera Jourova, in a tweet.
One of the suspended accounts, @ElonJet, remains suspended. According to BBCthe account’s owner, 20-year-old Jack Sweeney, used publicly available flight tracking information to tweet every time Musk’s plane took off and landed.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the organization’s secretary general, Antonio Guterres, called the decision a “dangerous precedent.”
Controversies have dogged Twitter since Musk took control there after paying $44 billion. For this he sold shares of Tesla, his successful electric car company.
With information from Afp and BBC.
