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'Bad liar': Elon Musk slammed for claiming journos posted ‘assassination coordinates’ amid Twitter accounts suspension

Ryan Mac of the New York Times, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN are some of the journalists who got suspended on Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Twitter suspended some famous journalists and Mastodon on Thursday, December 15. This suspension came soon after Elon Musk shut down Elon Jet, an account that was exclusively tracking Musk's jet locations run by Jack Sweeney. 

On Friday, December 16, Mike Solana, a famous media tycoon, tweeted, "so far, I’ve been able to confirm about half the accounts suspended posted links to the jet tracker thing in violation of the new doxxing policy. Unclear just yet about the rest, but I think it’s safe to say the rule is for real." To which Musk stated, "Same doxxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else." Further, he added, "They posted my exact real-time location. Basically, assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service."

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Journalists suspended on Thursday, December 15, include Ryan Mac of the New York Times, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Matt Binder of Mashable, Michah lee of The Intercept, along with Aaron Rupar, Tony Webster, and Keith Olberman. 

In a now-deleted tweet, Musk pointed out, "Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok." According to NBC, a spokesperson for The New York Times called the suspensions questionable and unfortunate. Further, the spokesperson added that no explanation was provided to Mac or the news organization about the ban.

"I have no idea what rules I purportedly broke. I haven’t heard anything from Twitter at all. I did publish a newsletter Wednesday morning featuring an article from Noah Berlatsky about Elon Musk’s reactionary populism. I also posted a tweet late last night noting that Musk seemed to violate Twitter’s policy against posting footage of someone without their consent in a tweet he posted yesterday. But it’s hard to imagine how either of those things violated Twitter’s policies," said Rupar on his Subtack profile. 

Binder, a tech reporter at Mashable whose account has been banned, said to NBC, "I’ve been on it since 2008. I never got so much as a slap on the wrist because I always follow the rules," Binder said. "It’s not hard to do when you know what the rules are." O’Sullivan also claimed, “As we saw with the jet tracker last night, Musk seems to be just stamping out accounts that he doesn’t like. Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” the network said in a statement. “We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”

'This is a lie. Not everyone you banned did this'

The Internet responded quickly to Elon's statement. A user tweeted, "But like, why don’t the other millionaires and billionaires fear for their life like this? Seems like a lot of paranoia. Paying $44B to control your privacy is a weird move but whatever." columnist, Jeanne Kelly said, "Aaron Rupar didn’t, so what’s your flimsy excuse for his suspension?." Another said, "This is really, really not true, and you know it's not. There's all the time in the world to quietly take the L, undo the damage, and keep quiet for a week to let everyone just kinda bounce back." A user added, "This is a lie. Not everyone you banned did this." A user added, "bro, this is such whiny bitch behavior. You're a celebrity in America, jackass. people know where you are all the time." A tweet read, "you're a spectacularly bad liar." "You literally doxxed your own employees," said Liberal activist Alisha Grauso. Another asked, "You posted a person's face, the type of car, the license plate and general location. How does this not violate the terms of service?."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.