Tausi Insider

Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner Elon Musk, including reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and other publications. The company hasn’t explained why it took down the accounts and made their profiles and past tweets disappear. The sudden suspension of news reporters followed Musk’s decision Wednesday to permanently ban an account that automatically tracked the flights of his private jet using publicly available data. Twitter also on Wednesday changed its rules to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent. Several of the reporters suspended Thursday night had been writing about that new policy and Musk’s rationale for imposing it, which involved his allegations about a stalking incident that affected his family on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. “Same doxxing rules apply to `journalists’ as to everyone else,” Musk tweeted Thursday. He later added: ...

Twitter’s unprecedented suspension of at least five journalists over claims they revealed the real-time location of owner Elon Musk drew swift backlash from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations across the globe on Friday. Officials from France, Germany, the U.K. and the European Union condemned the suspensions, with some saying the platform was jeopardizing press freedom. The episode, which one well-known security research labeled the “Thursday Night Massacre,” is being regarded by critics as fresh evidence of the billionaire, who considers himself a “free speech absolutist,” eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes. Roland Lescure, the French Minister of Industry, tweeted on Friday that following Musk’s suspension of journalists, he would suspend his own activity on Twitter. Melissa Fleming, head of communications for the United Nations, tweeted she was “deeply disturbed” by the suspensions and “media freedom is not a toy.” The German Foreign...

The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz became the latest journalist to be banned from Twitter, following a wave of suspensions by CEO Elon Musk. Lorenz said she and another Post technology reporter, Drew Harwell, were researching an article concerning Musk. She had tried to communicate with the billionaire during the week but the attempts went unanswered, so she tried to contact him Saturday by posting a message on Twitter tagging Musk and requesting an interview. The specific topic was not disclosed in the tweet. When she went back later Saturday to check whether there was a response on Twitter, Lorenz was met with a notification that her account was “permanently suspended.” “I won’t say I didn’t anticipate it,” Lorenz said in a phone interview early Sunday with The Associated Press. She said she wasn’t given a specific reason for the ban. Twitter last week suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the social media platform and Musk, among them reporters working for The New York ...

Meta Platforms Inc. META-Q said on Wednesday it will restore former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. The social media company said in a blog post it has “put new guardrails in place to deter repeat offences.” Trump has said he will make another run for the White House in 2024, and Facebook and Instagram are key vehicles for political outreach and fundraising. In November he regained access to Twitter, his once-favored online megaphone, and a few weeks after he said he was in talks with Meta about returning. “In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” wrote Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, in the blog post. The decision to ban Trump was a polarizing one for Meta, the world’s biggest social media c...