Twitter Inc. owner Elon Musk reinstated Taylor Lorenz after suspending her and two other journalists from the site over the weekend.
(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc.
owner Elon Musk reinstated Taylor Lorenz after suspending her and two other journalists from the site over the weekend.
Musk reinstated Lorenz, a Washington Post columnist, about an hour after tweeting that her suspension would be “lifted shortly.” The accounts of Business Insider’s Linette Lopez and Fox Business Network’s Susan Li remain frozen.
Musk first suspended a number of journalists on Thursday, including Lorenz’s colleague Drew Harwell, who he alleged were “doxxing” him by sharing information about the location of his private jet.
Musk also blocked accounts linking to Mastodon, an alternative social-media site, and a page that links to publicly available information about the status of his jet.
He reinstated most journalists after conducting a Twitter poll.
Musk suspended additional reporters on Friday and Saturday. Lorenz said she was suspended Saturday after she tweeted to Musk saying she and colleague Harwell had sent emails to him and to venture capitalist David Sacks after learning “some information that we’d like to share and discuss with you.”
Twitter Suspends Journalists Who Musk Says Imperiled His Safety
Writing later on her Substack, Lorenz said she logged back onto Twitter some time later and found her account frozen.
She said she received no information on why, or which terms she’d allegedly violated.
“As a journalist we have a deep commitment to free speech and free expression, and I do think that Musk arbitrarily banning people is antithetical to those values,” Lorenz told Bloomberg News.
Lorenz, a former technology reporter with the New York Times, Daily Beast and others, has long been a target of trolling on the platform, especially from conservative and right-wing accounts.
She has more than 340,000 followers on Twitter.
Lopez had been tweeting about Musk and the people he’d previously targeted online. Li had written about other reporters who were suspended just a day earlier.
In a new policy announced Sunday, Twitter will be taking down any accounts set up to promote alternative social media sites and posts with user names on other sites.
Musk Faces European Anger Over Twitter Ban of Journalists
Musk said he agreed with a user on Sunday who said there should be more transparency around the suspensions.
“A high priority software update for Twitter is showing the reason for account suspension or deboosting,” Musk tweeted.
“Rules should be equally & consistently applied.”
Musk’s suspensions received condemnation especially from European politicians who warned these moves could lead to fines under upcoming EU rules.
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