Washington Post technology culture writer Taylor Lorenz has been permanently suspended from Twitter, while the company’s owner Elon Musk is purging journalists from the platform.
Her removal from Twitter comes shortly after the tech giant announced new policies on doxing, something Lorenz has been accused of in the past.
Shortly after Lorenz’s suspension was confirmed, the former New York Times journalist posted a video on TikTok in which she was seen in a formal dress, smiling from ear to ear and confirming to the world that she was suspended.
Lorenz, who says in the clip that she’s with the Times’ Ryan Mac, who has also been suspended, takes the opportunity to promote her other social media handles and proclaims she hasn’t broken any Twitter Rules .
The reporter adds that hours before her suspension, she reached out to Musk for comment on a story.
Taylor Lorenz revealed in a TikTok video how she announced her suspension to the world
According to Lorenz’s Twitter account landing page, her account was suspended for “violating the Twitter Rules,” but the disclaimer doesn’t provide specific information.
The new move comes shortly after Musk restored the accounts of several journalists he had banned for allegedly doping his private jet’s movements.
After her suspension, Lorenz also wrote a blog on her Substack page, saying she couldn’t log into her account shortly after she asked Twitter owner Elon Musk to comment on a story.
Lorenz said: “I only had three tweets on my account when it got suspended. Two have promoted my social media profiles on other platforms and one was the tweet below asking Musk for comment.
She had written to Musk: “Hi Elon, Drew Harwell and I are sending you some emails regarding this. We have received some information that we would like to share and discuss with you. We take this very seriously and want to make sure this is followed up in the right way.’
At the time of writing, Harwell’s account remains active.
The tweet that appears to have broken the camel’s back, Lorenz asked Musk for comment on a story hours before her suspension
In April, the Washington Post journalist faced criticism from conservative media after she published a revelation about Chaya Raichik, the orthodox Jewish mastermind behind the widely successful Twitter account Libs of TikTok
Lorenz continued: “When I tried to log in to see if he had responded to our request, I was suspended. I have received no communication from the company as to why I was suspended or what terms I violated.’
She added, “In my 13-year career on social media, I have never received a single violation of the Terms of Service or the Community Guidelines for my personal account or any account I maintain.”
“Twitter has served as a major real-time news source and played a pivotal role in the world of journalism, but Musk’s arbitrary suspension of journalists covering him should worry anyone who values freedom of speech and expression,” Lorenz continued.
In April, the Washington Post journalist faced criticism from conservative media after she published a revelation about Chaya Raichik, the orthodox Jewish mastermind behind the widely successful Twitter account Libs of TikTok.
Taylor Lorenz, a Washington Post “internet culture” columnist, had expressed concern about the recent Twitter suspensions of journalists
The Libs of TikTok account tweeted Lorenz’s video announcing her suspension, saying, “It’s incredible to see these ‘journalists’ who are absolutely shocked to finally be able to reach the same standard as everyone else. They are so used to living by different rules.”
On TikTok, talent scout Ariadna Jacob tweeted screenshots of an interaction she had with Lorenz, in which Jacob accused the journalist of doxing her in a 2020 New York Times article and publicly revealing her address.
Musk responded to the tweet by saying, “Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated in the future.”
After suspending journalists including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac and Mashable’s Matt Binder, Lorenz had expressed anger at the decision.
She tweeted: “It’s very shady. I don’t understand how news organizations will continue to use this platform when censoring journalists.’
Lorenz followed suit by posting links to her other social media accounts.
Just last month, Lorenz was slammed for a tweet she sent criticizing former New York Times colleague Bari Weiss.
Weiss was one of the journalists hired by Elon Musk to release the Twitter files and uncover the company’s secrets regarding the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop history and other important issues.
In a tweet about Weiss launching a new media company called Free Press, Lorenz wrote, “Remarkable what’s been called a ‘buzzy media startup.’ If you start out rich, have a rich spouse and rich friends, don’t follow journalistic ethics rules, and focus your content solely on serving the interests of extremely powerful wealthy people, you can go far!’
Lorenz wrote on her Substack page, “In my 13-year career on social media, I have never received a single violation of the Terms of Service or the Community Guidelines for my personal account or any other account I have.”
Also in November, Lorenz made headlines for criticizing her own newspaper’s coverage of China and its opposition to Covid lockdowns in the country.
She responded to an article tweeted by the Post’s official account about China’s record number of coronavirus cases, noting that only a tiny fraction of its billion-dollar population is vaccinated.
“There is no permanent ‘natural immunity’ to COVID. You can get covid over and over again because there are so many endlessly evolving strains and antibodies are dwindling. Nor is the decision not to kill millions of people at risk (like the US is doing) a “critical error,” Lorenz wrote.
Twitter users were horrified that Lorenz would appear to defend the authoritarian country’s lockdowns and implied human rights abuses – with one user accusing her of “spreading misinformation” and noting that her editors were unlikely to sanction her because each controversy generated more calls for the Post’s website.
Lorenz later tried to clarify her earlier tweet by suddenly praising the Post’s coverage, adding that the article contained “a lot more nuance, by the way.”
There were also very few direct replies to Lorenz’s original tweet as her Twitter settings do not allow for a right to reply unless she follows her directly.
“A coronavirus outbreak on the verge of becoming China’s largest pandemic has exposed a critical flaw in Beijing’s ‘zero Covid’ strategy: a vast population without natural immunity,” the post said.