Musk Reverses Course on Journalist Suspensions After Criticism
The saga of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover will likely be studied for years, as the eccentric billionaire continuing to some rather controversial decisions with his already-failing project.
For instance, his recent banning of a number of prominent journalists was seen as an anti-free speech maneuver, particularly after Musk repeatedly suggested that he’d be bringing more liberty to the platform. The move was so unpopular, in fact, that he’s now reversed course.
Amid intense backlash and accusations of violating press freedom, Twitter has reinstated the accounts of several journalists who were suspended earlier this week.
Advertisement - story continues belowOn Thursday night, the social media platform suspended several reporters who had tweeted or written about Elon Musk’s ownership of the company.
The accounts that went dark included Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Ryan Mac of The New York Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and journalist Aaron Rupar.
On Friday evening, Musk put the decision of whether to reinstate suspended accounts up for a public vote. He tweeted an informal poll which asked Twitter users to choose when to “unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time.”
Musk used democratic means to make a determination.
According to the poll, 58.7% of voters favored lifting the suspensions immediately over 41.3% of respondents who said Musk should wait seven more days.
The Tesla CEO had similarly suspended and reinstated an account that tracks the movements of his private jet, complaining that the already-publicly-available information was akin to “doxing”.
