“News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our Media Freedom Act. Elon Musk should be aware of that,” Jourova tweeted earlier today. “There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,” she added. The EU hasn’t released a formal statement on the matter yet.
The EU warns Elon Musk after Twitter suspended several journalists
Twitter suspended several prominent journalists on Thursday evening. Well-known journalists from publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and CNN, as well as some freelance journalists, had their Twitter accounts suspended abruptly around the same time yesterday. The company reportedly didn’t give them any warning or prior notification. Musk later said that the suspended journalists violated Twitter’s new “doxxing” rules. It concerns sharing of others’ private information online without permission. The Twitter CEO said all of those journalists doxxed his real-time location info. This is a violation of the company’s policy and as a result, they had their accounts suspended with immediate effect. All of this happened after Twitter suspended @ElonJet, an account that shared the real-time location of Musk’s private plane. The platform also suspended the personal account of Jack Sweeney, the 20-year-old student who ran @ElonJet. The Twitter CEO said the information that Sweeney shared endangered his family. A stranger allegedly attacked his car carrying his young son using that information. After @ElonJet was suspended, several journalists questioned Musk’s policies as the suspension doesn’t fit well the facade of Twitter being a free speech platform. They also either shared the link to the @ElonJet account on other platforms or mentioned the handle in their tweets. Some even questioned the legitimacy of Musk’s claim that his car was attacked using the info shared by @ElonJet. Musk suggested these journalists violated the doxxing rules and should stand suspended. However, the action may have welcomed EU sanctions. The EU’s Digital Services Act is yet to come into force. The new law, which is currently going through the EU Parliament, allows the Commission to fine companies that violate its rules up to six percent of their global annual turnover.
Twitter may reinstate the suspended journalists
Meanwhile, Twitter may soon reinstate the suspended journalists. Elon Musk is currently running a poll asking when he should unsuspend accounts that doxxed his real-time location. As of this writing, more than 2.7 million people have voted. Almost 60 percent of them say the journalists should be reinstated immediately. The other option in the poll is to reinstate “in 7 days”. Musk has run these kinds of polls in the past as well. He reinstated former US president Donald Trump after a poll. He also announced a general amnesty for suspended accounts after Twitter users favored the idea. With the majority of voters rallying for an immediate revoke of the journalists’ ban, they should be back by next week. We will keep you posted.
