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| Twitter boss Elon Musk |
WASHINGTON — Twitter boss Elon Musk tweeted early Saturday (December 17) that the reporter’s Twitter account which was temporarily closed on Thursday night will be reopened.
Several journalist accounts have been reactivated after Musk’s tweet, but not every banned account has been restored.
Musk said he froze the accounts because the reporters leaked real-time location information about his private jet. He also said it allowed a stalker to harass one of his children.
Although the journalists whose accounts were frozen had covered Musk and his closed @ElonJet account, no one tweeted about his plane’s location. This type of information is also publicly available on other websites.
The freezing of journalists’ accounts raises serious concerns among journalists, human rights groups, and international organizations.
U.N. spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric said Friday that “this sets a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists around the world face censorship, physical threats, and worse.” He also noted that the United Nations was “very troubled” by these “arbitrary” freezes on accounts.
The EU is also concerned about the freezing of journalists’ accounts. Vera Jourova, the European Commission’s vice president for value and transparency, wrote on her Twitter account that the suspension was worrying and that “EU digital services law requires respect for press freedom and fundamental individual rights.” Our freedom of the press law protects these rights even more. Musk
should understand this, she said. The red line is there,” she said, “and the sanctions are there.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists also expressed its concern, stressing that if journalists were retaliated against for their work, “this would be a serious violation of journalists’ right to report without fear of reprisals.”
Frederike Kaltheunet, director of technology and human rights at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Friday that “closing an account on the sole pretext of privacy or security cannot be justified.” “Flight data is publicly available elsewhere, and Musk is a public figure, and his business and government relations are in the public interest.” If the flight tracker revealed his whereabouts, it was also publicly available information, and any risk to his safety did not come from people’s tweets.
Claire Regan, president of the National Association of Professional Journalists, expressed concern about the freezing of accounts on her official Twitter account, saying they “violate Musk’s commitment to upholding free speech on the platform.” We will continue to monitor developments and advocate for freedom of the press and freedom of expression on all platforms.
Musk did a poll on Twitter about whether and should the journalists’ accounts be reinstated, and nearly 59 percent of respondents wanted them to be reinstated immediately. Musk announced the results of the survey on Twitter, saying that “the people have spoken up.”
Musk said in a tweet early Saturday morning that the Twitter space has resumed operations. The Twitter space allows for voice group chats, where he has participated in discussions among journalists about his freezing of some journalists’ accounts. After Musk went offline, Twitter’s group chat function was turned off.