‘Rule by diktat’: Press freedom and civil rights groups condemn Elon Musk’s decision to suspend journalists

Twitter suspended the accounts of more than half a dozen journalists who scrutinise Elon Musk and the massively influential social media platform he now owns, while one of the world’s wealthiest men accused reporters of posting “basically assassination coordinates” for him and his family.

The billionaire accused reporters of “doxxing”, or publishing private or identifying information for malicious intent, though there is no evidence that the targeted reporters had published such information.

The suspensions came one day after the company changed its terms of service to prohibit the sharing of “live location information”, leading to the suspension of @ElonJet, an account that used publicly and legally available flight data to share the location of Mr Musk’s private plane.

Now, press freedom groups, publishers and civil rights organisations have condemned the billionaire’s decision and the disingenuous “free speech” mantra that has amplified reactionaries at others’ expense. Hours after suspending journalists who critically cover Mr Musk, users like Mike Lindell who repeatedly and flagrantly violated user policies were allowed back on the platform.

Summer Lopez, chief program officer for Free Expression programmes at PEN America, said it was “alarming but unfortunately not so surprising to see Musk silencing journalists or creating new content regulation rules on a whim, based purely on what he finds inconvenient for him”.

“He has from the start seemed to treat Twitter more like a personal fiefdom than a global public square,” she said in a statement. “Musk can talk about standing for free speech all he wants, but this should make it clear to everyone that what he’s doing is quite the opposite.”

Imran Ahmed, the CEO of nonprofit watchdog organisation Center for Countering Digital Hate, told The Independent in a statement that “any pretense that Twitter adheres to Terms and Conditions we all agree to is in tatters.”

“Twitter is now run by Elon Musk’s latest diktat,” he said. “Banning journalists on trumped-up charges of ‘doxxing’ is just the latest example of rule by diktat.”

Mr Ahmed said that if the billionaire “truly cared about the scourge of doxxing he would have led by example and not leaked the personal details of former staff, putting them in real danger,” alluding to the publishing of internal communications in the so-called “Twitter Files” that have fuelled threats against employees.

According to Mr Ahmed, Twitter’s new owner “simply does not understand the difference between the public interest and his own interests, seeking to expel journalists critical of him rather than tackling dangerous hate speech and rampant misinformation that cause real-world detriment to the wider public.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that “purging critical journalists is an attack on free expression,” adding that the “First Amendment protects Musk’s right to do this even if it’s a terrible decision.”

If their suspension is confirmed as retaliation for their work, “this would be a serious violation of journalists’ right to report the news without fear of reprisal,” according to a statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Journalists who were targeted for suspension had written about changes to Twitter’s policy as well as Mr Musk’s own claims that his family had been endangered by location sharing.

“Criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” he wrote on Thursday.

He also appeared in a Spaces chat – essentially, a live audio chatroom on the platform – late on Thursday night, repeating his claims to journalists in the chatroom discussing the suspensions that they had “doxxed” him.

“You’re suggesting that we’re sharing your address, which is not true,” said Drew Harwell, a reporter for The Washington Post, whose account was suspended.

“You posted a link to the address,” Mr Musk replied.

“In the course of reporting on @ElonJet, we posted a link to @ElonJet, which is now not online,” Mr Harwell responded.

Mr Musk abruptly left the Spaces chat after a few minutes.

“Harwell was banished from Twitter without warning, process or explanation, following the publications of his accurate reporting about Musk,” Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee said in a statement. “Our journalist should be reinstated immediately.”

A spokesperson for The New York Times, whose reporter Ryan Mac was also suspended, called the suspensions “questionable and unfortunate”.

“Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred,” the newspaper said in a statement. “We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”

CNN, whose reporter Donie O’Sullivan was also suspended, called the decision “impulsive and unjustified” and said the company had requested an explanation from Twitter, adding “we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”

Researchers who study free speech issues and technology issues also have warned that authoritarian regimes could seek to exploit Twitter’s apparent suppression of antagonistic journalists to suppress dissent in other countries, potentially as a condition for doing business there.

“The worst governments are already going to suppress speech,” University of California, Irvine law professor and former United Nations free speech watchdog David Kaye told NBC News.

“I think [Mr Musk] might be more willing to take those kinds of steps that are, frankly, deeply problematic in regimes where there’s no real independent media and the place people go to share information is Twitter,” he said.

Twitter also suspended an account belonging to antifascist media organization It’s Going Down, which has covered far-right activity and far-right violence since 2015, after prominent far-right personalities on Twitter pressed Mr Musk to act against left-wing accounts.

In a post on its website after its Twitter suspension, It’s Going Down lambasted online platforms that rely financially on viral far-right content, which has been central to Twitter and its attraction to a right-wing base that has been exiled elsewhere.

“We expect Musk to run Twitter into the ground, turning it into yet another far-right echo-chamber,” it wrote.