Photo illustration: The Intercept/Getty Images
I’ve been writing critically of billionaire Elon Musk since he took over Twitter — particularly his “free speech” hypocrisy and censorship of left-wing accounts. That must have upset him. Last week he suspended me and eight other journalists from Twitter.
We had all pointed out that Musk censored a Twitter account, @ElonJet, which uses public data to publish the location of his private jet, but that @ElonJet has switched to competing social networks like Mastodon, which does not censor the account to have. Musk accused us of “doxx” him by posting “murder coordinates‘ and then attempted to attribute his outburst to an alleged stalking incident unrelated to the @ElonJet account.
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My ban only lasted a few days before my account was restored. When people visit my twitter profile, it no longer says “Account Suspended” and it looks like I’m back on the platform. Friends and strangers alike have reached out to me and said it’s good to see I’m back on Twitter. It’s an illusion.
In reality, I’m still banned from my Twitter account unless I agree to delete a specific tweet Billionaire’s Order. Several of the other suspended journalists are in the same boat. (Twitter, where the communications team was decimated by Musk’s firings, didn’t immediately respond to a message for comment.)
When I log into my Twitter account, the page is replaced with the message: “Your account has been suspended.” Twitter is accusing me of violating their rules about posting private information. (In the 13 years that I’ve been using Twitter, I’ve never broken any rules, and my account has never been banned or banned until now.)
In order to unblock my account, I need to remove the offensive tweet, which in my case read: “Twitter just blocked Mastodon’s official Twitter account @joinmastodon with 174,000 followers, probably because he tweeted a link to @ElonJet’s Mastodon account. Twitter now censors posting link but user is @[email protected]”
Screenshot: Micah Lee
I didn’t want to bend the knee to the mad king of Twitter, so I appealed. “My tweet is about Twitter censoring rival social network Mastodon,” I wrote. “This is a form of suppression of speech that never existed prior to Elon Musk’s takeover.” Two days later, I received an update from Twitter: “Our support team has determined that a breach has occurred and as such we will address ours.” Don’t undo your decision.”
My alleged offense is that I posted private information on Twitter by linking to @ElotJet’s account on Mastodon or, in my case, mentioning the username and showing the link in a screenshot. This is absurd at first glance – I didn’t post any private information, let alone “assassination coordinates” – but a quick Twitter search of https://mastodon.social/@ElonJet reveals many other accounts have this sent the same link is not blocked yet.
I’m not the only suspended journalist whose account has been suspended. Some journalists like Washington Post’s Drew Harwell have written on Mastodon about being locked out. “For anyone wondering,” Harwell wrote, “I still can’t access Twitter until I delete this tweet, which is factual journalism that doesn’t even violate the location rule Twitter enacted a few days ago.” ‘ He included a screenshot of the tweet.
And in one Interview on CNN, Donie O’Sullivan, another suspended journalist, stated that his account was also suspended. “Right now I’m not allowed to tweet on the platform unless I agree to take down this tweet at the behest of the billionaire,” he said. He also appealed.
Mashable’s Matt Binder not suspended after the mass ban, but he wrote on Mastodon that he was locked out when he wrote to a Twitter official to ask how he violated company policy. “Apparently they forgot to force me to delete the tweet the first time, like they did the other suspended journalists,” he wrote.
Voice of America’s Steve Herman, whose account was also suspended last week, told CNN over the weekend: “When I got up this morning I saw a series of messages that my account had been restored with everyone else’s. Well, that’s not entirely true.” Herman explained that Musk asked him to delete three offending tweets, all about @ElotJet.
The New York Times reported that its suspended journalist, Ryan Mac, has also had his account suspended depending on whether he decides to delete posts that Twitter has flagged as violating the rules against posting private information.
Other journalists who were suspended for their @ElonJet-related tweets are now fully back, including Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster.
Personally, I have no intention of giving in to Musk’s petty demands. We’ll see if anything changes. In the meantime, you can follow me on Mastodon at @mica[email protected]and The Intercept at @[email protected].