Tonight, Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists who report on tech, Twitter, and Elon Musk without explanation.
Prominent reporters such as CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, the Washington Post‘s Drew Harwell, and the New York Times Ryan Mac all disappeared from the site.
Also caught in the purge were progressive Substack writer Aaron Rupar, Mashable’s Matt Binder, and the Intercept’s Micah Lee. Keith Olbermann, a liberal pundit, appears to have been banned after discussing the suspension of the Post’s Harwell.
Earlier today, the account for It’s Going Down, an antifascist publication, lost its account.
The account for Mastadon, a social media network alternative to Twitter, was also suspended.
Although no reason has been given for the suspensions, a number of people speculated it had to do with coverage of the news around @ElonJet, an account Musk banned that shared updates on his private plane in real-time. Musk suspended the account yesterday after previously pledging to keep it up as part of his commitment to free speech.
According to a reporter at the Verge, who spoke with Ella Irwin, Twitter’s new head of Trust & Safety, Twitter is suspending any accounts that “violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk.”
That means it is possible that Twitter is suspending reporters for linking to or sharing information about Musk’s private jet that cropped up on other sites after @ElonJet was suspended.
This story is developing and will be updated.
