Elon Musk, self-proclaimed champion of free speech, did it self-destruct, Thursday, December 15 in the evening? The social network Twitter, acquired for 44 billion dollars (41 billion euros) by the boss of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, suddenly suspended at least eight accounts of journalists who wrote about him. These include Drew Harwell (washington post), by Ryan Mac (New York Times), Donie O’Sullivan (CNN) or even Aaron Rupar, an independent political journalist present on the online platform Substack and with 800,000 subscribers.
The day before, Elon Musk started by suspending the Twitter account that tracked the movements of his private jetin the name of protecting his privacy and endangering his family. “Any account revealing anyone’s real-time location information will be suspended as a breach of physical security. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location information. Posting places someone has been to with a slight delay is not a security concern, so that’s fine”, had tweeted during the day the billionaire. A little later, he also suspended the personal account of the host of this account, Jack Sweney, a 20-year-old student who had asked for 50,000 dollars to stop tracking Elon Musk’s jet.
On November 6, Elon Musk had nevertheless prided himself on not committing any censorship: “My commitment to free speech even extends to not banning the account following my plane, even if it is a direct risk to personal safety”he had tweeted.
To justify the suspension of reporters’ accounts, Elon Musk tweeted Thursday evening: “It’s okay to criticize me all day, but revealing my location in real time and putting my family at risk is not.” » Before adding: “The same rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else. »
It seems that an incident with a vehicle carrying one of Elon Musk’s children, named X, is behind the acceleration of the case. “Last night the car carrying little X to Los Angeles was followed by a crazed stalker (thinking it was me), who then stopped the car from moving and climbed onto the hood. Legal action is ongoing against Sweeney and the organizations that supported the harm done to my family”tweeted Elon Musk.
Suspensions “worrying but not surprising”
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