Twitter in the past hours restored the accounts of several journalists who were suspended after Elon Musk, the owner of the social network, accused them of sharing details about their movements and putting their families at risk Was.
The lifting of the suspension was announced after Musk himself consulted his followers in a poll, in which he asked them whether users who shared their location in real time should receive their accounts back immediately or in seven days. Should be able to.
“The people have spoken. The suspension of accounts that published my location will now be lifted,” the businessman said in a tweet, adding that nearly 59% of the more than 3 million votes registered in the consultation supported that option. .
The suspension was criticized by several governments and international organizations as a potential attack on press freedom.
By early Saturday, the accounts of most journalists who had been blocked — mostly journalists specializing in media technology such as The New York Times, The Washington Post or CNN, among others — were back online.
However, some were still blocked, including well-known political commentator Keith Olbermann or Business Insider journalist Lynette Lopez, who has thoroughly investigated Musk himself.
Musk has justified the suspension by asserting that the journalists violated new rules of use announced by Twitter this week that prohibit the social network from sharing one’s location in real time.
This all happened after Twitter suspended the @elonjet account, which followed the movements of the tycoon’s private jet, which is public, and that of its manager, Jack Sweeney.
Several of the blocked journalists later wrote about the suspension of @elonjet, a move Musk himself vowed not to take.
He said a month earlier, “My commitment to freedom of expression extends to not banning an account that follows my plane, even if it is a direct risk to personal safety.”
Her change of heart, she assures, happened after a man allegedly attacked a car in which her two-year-old son was traveling in Los Angeles (California).
Despite the lifting of restrictions on several journalists, accounts following the movements of Musk’s private jet continue to be suspended.
