By
Fatimah Idera & Fawaz Adebisi
Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform, Twitter, on Thursday suspended the accounts of prominent journalists from top media organisations in the implementation of his earlier announced rules on “doxxing”.
Journalists whose accounts were suspended included; New York Times reporter, Ryan Mac, Washington Post reporter, Drew Harwell, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Matt Binder of Mashable, The Intercept’s Micah Lee and Steve Herman of Voice of America.
The accounts of independent journalists like Aaron Rupar, Tony Webster and Keith Olbermann were also suspended.
Also, the account of a social media company called Mastodon, which is known to be an alternative to Twitter, was also suspended.
Therefore, BLACKBOX NIGERIA have gathered that accounts belonging to journalists were the most suspended on the platform, especially those whose beat is Twitter.
At the time of filling this report, the social media company did not clearly state what the suspensions had in common, as each user’s Twitter page was suspended for allegedly violating the Twitter rules.
Recall that Musk has been speaking strongly on his mission to maintain free speech on Twitter, despite this, the suspension of the prominent journalists’ accounts came a day after Twitter suspended more than 25 accounts that tracked the planes of government agencies, billionaires and high-profile individuals, including that of Musk.
The CNN officials have therefore reacted to the accounts suspension, describing the act as an impulsive and unjustified suspension.
CNN wrote, “the impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising, Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses the platform.
Therefore, “we have asked Twitter for an explanation, and will reevaluate the relationship based on the response,” it added.
