Elon Musk’s Twitter suspends the account of another Washington Post journalist

() — Elon Musk’s Twitter suspended the account of The Washington Post technology columnist Taylor Lorenz on Saturday, the latest in a series of suspensions of high-profile journalists on the platform, casting doubt on Musk’s alleged commitment to freedom of expression.

The decision to suspend Lorenz came after she tweeted to Musk, notifying him that she had emailed the new owner of Twitter about a story she is working on with her colleague, Drew Harwell, who had also been suspended from Twitter days before.

In a statement on Sunday, the newspaper’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said that “the arbitrary suspension of another Post journalist further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to freedom of expression.” expression”.

“Again, the suspension occurred without warning, process, or explanation, this time because our reporter simply solicited comments from Musk for a story. Post journalists must be reinstated immediately, without arbitrary conditions,” Buzbee said.

Musk in a tweet Sunday morning said the suspension was due to a “prior doxing action” by Lorenz. It was unclear exactly what “doxxing” Musk was referring to and in recent days he has falsely accused various reporters of sharing his location in real time.

However, Musk added that suspension of Lorenz’s account it will “rise shortly.”

Musk also banished Fox Business correspondent Susan Li from Twitter on Friday.

“After a full day of reporting these suspensions of Twitter accounts, I found myself in the same and the same suspension permanently,” Li said on Fox News on Saturday morning.

The Li’s account it remains suspended and Musk has not explained why. Fox spokespersons have not responded to requests for comment.

The Insider columnist’s account linette lopez it also remains suspended since Sunday morning. It’s not clear why she was suspended, but she had shared some previous reports about Tesla on her Twitter account before she was kicked out, according to an archived page of her feed available through the Internet Archive. Insider declined to comment and Lopez did not respond to a request.

Musk, however, offered a batch of reporters who suspended this Thursday the possibility of returning to the platform. Those reporters include ‘s Donie O’Sullivan, The Washington Post’s Harwell and The New York Times’ Ryan Mac.

But O’Sullivan and Harwell said they must agree to delete the tweet that Musk falsely claimed shared his real-time location before they can tweet again.

O’Sullivan and Harwell said they would appeal the decision. “It’s journalism,” Harwell wrote in his appeal, according to a copy of which was provided to .

Twitter bans links to Facebook and other social networking sites

Twitter will ban links to other social networking services and suspend accounts that attempt to direct Twitter users to alternative platforms, the company announced Sunday, in an apparent attempt to stem user defections to competitors.

Under the new policy, linking to content on Facebook and Instagram is prohibited, as is linking to content on popular emerging Twitter alternatives such as Mastodon and Post. The rule also covers Truth Social, the Twitter clone backed by former President Donald Trump.

Twitter’s move signals a shift toward a more closed environment, one that still accepts incoming traffic from other sites but makes it more difficult for users to leave Twitter’s website for other destinations.

“Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post,” tweeted Twitter support account.

Despite the bans, Twitter says it will still “allow paid advertising/promotion for any of the banned social media platforms.”

Notably absent from the list is TikTok, one of the fastest-growing social media platforms on the internet and whose ties to China have raised national security concerns by US lawmakers. Twitter owner Elon Musk’s significant involvement in China through his other company, Tesla, has raised questions among critics about whether Musk would take on China if he tried to pressure Twitter.

The Twitter announcement sparked confusion from the company’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey, who answered: “Why?”. dorsey continuous: “Has no sense”.

The announcement comes after some Twitter users announced their intention to move to other platforms last week, following Twitter’s suspension of several journalists covering Musk. Amid the backlash to the suspensions of journalists, Twitter began quietly blocking links to Mastodon.

Now, that practice has been formalized into official Twitter policy, in a move that could further surprise regulators of the social network.

As part of Twitter’s new policy, users cannot “link” to social media platforms subject to the restrictions. Users are also prohibited from updating their Twitter profiles to include account names on other platforms, which tells followers where they can be found elsewhere on social media.

For example, posting encouragement for “follow me @username on Instagram” or “[email protected]” is restricted, Twitter said in a statement. blog post.

Attempts to circumvent that policy will also apply, the company said. For example, using link shortening services to hide the true destination of a URL or attempts to spell a URL in plain text will also violate Twitter’s rules, the company said.

“If violations of this policy are included in your bio and/or account name, we will temporarily suspend your account and request changes to your profile so that it is no longer in violation,” the blog post read. “Subsequent violations may result in a permanent suspension.”

First offenses or isolated incidents may result in temporary suspensions or requirements that users remove the infringing content, Twitter said.

Users can continue to use third-party software to simultaneously post their social media content to multiple sites, including Twitter, the company said.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.