() — Elon Musk’s Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists who cover technology on Thursday without explanation.
Profiles belonging to ‘s Donie O’Sullivan, Ryan Mac of The New York Times and Drew Harwell of the washington post, as well as other technology journalists, were abruptly suspended.
“Elon says he is a defender of free speech and prevents journalists from exercising free speech. I think that calls into question his commitment,” Harwell told .
The account of progressive freelance journalist Aaron Rupar was also suspended. Rupar told that he has not received any communication from Twitter about the suspension. “Nothing,” he said in a phone call.
has reached out to Musk and Twitter for comment.
The suspensions come after Twitter on Thursday shut down an account belonging to Mastodon, an emerging competitor.
Earlier Thursday, Twitter shut down a Mastodon account and tweeted that people could follow @ElonJet, the account that tracks Musk’s private plane on its platform, after the billionaire banned @ElonJet from Twitter on Wednesday.