Along with the
European Union, the United Nations has denounced Twitter's move to suspend some
journalists who write about the social media company.
One group of those
unable to access their accounts was journalists for the New York Times, CNN,
and the Washington Post.
While the EU has
threatened Twitter with penalties, the UN has declared that media freedom is
"not a toy."
A Twitter
representative said to a US tech news website that the limitations applied to
the real-time sharing of location information.
According to
Melissa Fleming, the UN's undersecretary general for international
communications, news that journalists were being "arbitrarily" removed
from Twitter left her "very troubled."
She declared,
"Media freedom is not a toy." The foundation of democratic society is
a free press, which is also a crucial weapon in the struggle against harmful
misinformation.
Vera Jourova, an EU
commissioner, warned Twitter with penalties earlier on Friday in accordance
with the EU's new Digital Services Act, which she said mandates "the
protection of media freedom and foundation rights."
"Elon Musk needs
to be conscious of that. Red lines are present. Sanctions, shortly, "Added
her.
Even though Mr.
Musk hasn't directly addressed the bans, he did tweet that "criticizing me
all day long is entirely ok, but doxxing my real-time whereabouts and
endangering my family is not."
Later, the software
billionaire created a poll asking people whether they thought the accounts
should be unfrozen "immediately" or "in seven days,"
implying that the decision may be changed sooner rather than later.
He continued by
saying, "Same doxxing standards apply to 'journalists' as to everyone
else," referring to the practice of publishing private information about
people online.
The suspensions
were deemed "questionable and regrettable" by a representative for
the New York Times.
The suspensions
follow Mr. Musk's threat to bring a lawsuit against the proprietor of a profile
that follows his private plane.
He said that a
"crazy stalker" had tracked down and approached a car carrying his
kids in Los Angeles via live location sharing.
The German Foreign
Office issued a warning to Twitter after the bans, saying that "press
freedom cannot be switched on and off at will."
The "town
square"
In a $44 billion
($36 billion) agreement, Mr. Musk acquired control of Twitter in October.
After successfully
acquiring the website, the billionaire informed advertisers that he did it in
order to "attempt to serve mankind" and so that "civilization
would have a digital town square."
He has altered
several of its moderating procedures. Some civil rights organizations are
concerned about the actions and accuse the billionaire of implementing measures
that would promote abuse, disinformation, and hate speech.
The new Digital
Services Act of the bloc, which was passed by the EU earlier this year, may be
used to enforce any penalties imposed on Mr. Musk's company as a result of the
account suspensions.
According to the
proposed new regulation, the EU Commission will have the authority to penalize
a company that it determines violates its rules up to 6% of its global revenue.
If a service is
"refusing to comply with key requirements and consequently jeopardizing
people's lives and safety," the EU may in extreme circumstances seek a
court to stop it.
One of those
suspended, Matt Binder, a Mash able writer, claimed he had no idea why he had
been barred.
He said to the BBC,
"I've been pretty critical of Musk in my reporting." He clarified,
however, that it was untrue that Mr. Musk had claimed "that everyone that
got suspended was doxxing him - owing to the jet tracker."
He said that
despite mentioning the account after it was suspended, he had never tweeted a
link to the tracker.
Because the link
was tweeted from literally hundreds of accounts every minute, it is obvious
that the individuals who were suspended were hand-picked.
Since joining
Twitter in 2008, Mr. Binder has been covering the site's progress and expressed
astonishment at the prohibition for journalists.
"I knew it was
possible, but I truly didn't think he would since it would completely scupper
the pretense of being a free speech platform," the author said.
Ben Collins, an NBC
News misinformation reporter, was removed from broadcasts due to his tweets
earlier this month that were critical of Elon Musk, it was revealed on Friday.
On Twitter Spaces,
a feature of the social media platform that enables live audio discussions, Mr.
Musk subsequently talked with journalists. However, after responding to a few
inquiries regarding the restriction, he departed, and Twitter Spaces has since
seemed to be banned.
Since Elon Musk's
takeover, Mastodon, which has become a Twitter alternative, has also had its
official account suspended by Twitter.
It also looked that
links to specific Mastodon accounts were prohibited. Users were informed
through an error notice that connections to Mastodon had been
"identified" by Twitter or its partners as "possibly
dangerous."
The father who is
furious over the sharing of his private jet's location data, which he believes
caused a security issue involving his young son X, is at the centre of everything.
The original Twitter feed used flight data that was available to the general public.
Possibly not very decent but not against the law.
Now those reporters
who allegedly knew where he was have come under his wrath.
But this approach
to moderation is inherently faulty. Many of us probably wish we could block or
suspend social media accounts that publish stuff we find objectionable.
Elon Musk has used
a highly personal approach to content control before. Since Alex Jones of
Infowars had used child fatalities to further his career and had highlighted
the loss of his own kid, 10-week-old Alexander, he refused to allow Jones back
on Twitter.
Additionally, he
suspended accounts that used his likeness to post.
Fundamentally, Elon
Musk has put his much-promised dedication to "free speech" in the
flames. The message seems to be free speech as long as it doesn't offend him
personally.