Elon Musk’s war on journalists marched this weekend when Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz was temporarily booted from Twitter after soliciting the unpredictable billionaire to comment on a story.
“When I tried to log in to see if he had responded to our request, I was suspended. I have not received any communication from the company as to why I was suspended or what terms I violated,” Lorenz wrote on her substack.
Musk said Sunday morning that Lorenz had been suspended for “previous doxxing actions on this account” and would be lifted “soon”.
The suspension came after Musk swiped and restored the accounts of several other prominent journalists who had linked to the @elonjet account, which was run by a college boy who tracks the movements of his private plane.
It also followed a recent complaint by influencer manager Ariadna Jacob to Musk, which was the subject of a critical article by Lorenz and who subsequently sued the reporter for defamation.
Jacob claimed that Lorenz doped her in the article that appeared in The New York Times while she was working there. In Lorenz’s story, she linked to a public Zillow listing from an influencer collaboration house.
“Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated in the future,” Musk wrote in response on Friday, a day before Lorenz was suspended from Twitter.
The suspension of Lorenz without a clear explanation of her alleged infraction has been a topic of previous journalist bans.
For example, Twitter banned some reporters who merely linked to @elonjet’s new account at social media rival Mastodon – which was also briefly banned from Twitter.
“Twitter has served as a major real-time news source and has played a pivotal role in the world of journalism,” Lorenz wrote, “but Musk’s arbitrary suspension of journalists covering him should worry anyone who values journalism and free speech.”