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Elon Musk suspends Aaron Rupar's Twitter account in shocking move, Internet says, 'Gotta love the irony!'

Rupar’s suspension came a day after he published an article by Noah Berlatsky criticizing the Chief Twit with the headline ‘Elon Musk’s Reactionary Populism’

SAN FRANSISCO, CALIFORNIA: Twitter suspended several high-profile journalists on Thursday, December 15, 2022, covering the company and Elon Musk, including an independent journalist Aaron Rupar. The other journalists include Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, and independent journalists Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster.

According to The Independent, Rupar has 788,000 followers. The suspension came a day after Twitter changed its policies around accounts that track private jets. “I never posted anything Elon Jet related or that could violate the policy about disclosing locations. Unless the policy is that you criticize Elon and you get banned,” Rupar told Oliver Darcy of CNN. 

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Rupar’s suspension came a day after he published a Substack article by Noah Berlatsky criticizing the Chief Twit with the headline ‘Elon Musk’s Reactionary Populism’. Rupar was an Associate Editor at Vox Media until 2021. His major reporting areas include national politics. He regularly covers right-wing politicians such as Donald Trump, as well as Fox News and hosts such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, according to The Independent. He wrote on his Subtack account, "Early Thursday evening, I started receiving messages that my Twitter account was suspended. I initially thought I was being trolled. But I picked up my phone to check it out and lo and behold, it’s true." 

He further explained, "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."

The post also claimed, "I have spent more than five years painstakingly documenting major developments in US politics on Twitter with video, so losing that archive instantaneously and for no good reason is a bummer. And as an independent journalist running a newsletter business who relies on Twitter for new subscribers, being stripped of a huge part of my audience hurts."

It further read, "Anyway, I’m holding out hope that Twitter will reconsider this move, so anything you can do to help me get my account restored is appreciated. At the very least it would be nice if the company would try to explain what’s going on." The article ‘Elon Musk’s Reactionary Populism.’ suggested points such as, "there is a huge difference between them and the "marginalized people who dare to speak up for themselves, or who simply want to live their lives without being insulted, tormented, or brutalized, are pilloried as vaunting elitists who must be confronted, overthrown, destroyed."

Rupar then said, "Musk, one of the richest people on earth, frames himself as a brave voice of the people fighting against entrenched elites. It’s easy to call him an out-of-touch hypocrite — and everyone should call him that! — but the populist cosplay of the very rich isn’t just a deception. It’s the implementation of an ugly, more or less explicitly fascist, ideology. Musk thinks he’s “of the people” because he sees his own power as deserved. For him and his ilk the real elites are the undeserving who dare to criticize the rightful hierarchy — or who simply dare to exist."

Meanwhile, Musk also suspended the Elon Jet account handled by Jack Sweeney, which records real-time locations of his jet. The Twitter CEO said in a now-deleted tweet, "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." 

' He only cares about himself. We should all be outraged'

The Internet quickly responded to the new move by Musk. A user said, "Elon Musk just suspended a bunch of journalists, including Aaron Rupar, who cover him — without any reason. By silencing journalists, it’s clear that Elon Musk doesn’t care about free speech or democracy. He only cares about himself. We should all be outraged."

Another said, "Aaron Rupar got banned tonight. Pretty soon Twitter's just gonna be Elon and Joe Rogan sitting in a smokey little room talking about "woke aliens" or some s**t." 

One user said, "Liberals are having a meltdown because liberal propagandist hack Aaron Rupar got suspended. Gotta love the irony!" A user claimed, "Tonight It’s Going Down, Aaron Rupar, and Mastadon have been suspended. So anarchists, liberals, and his business competition. As far from free speech as you could possibly get.

Another added, "Aaron Rupar had an extremely harmless Twitter account so the only reason I can assume he got suspended is because he offended the world’s most pathetic divorcee in some minor way. Prepare to hear silence or celebration from the “free speech absolutists.”

Jennifer Taub, author of 'Big Dirty Money', stated, "Who’s Afraid of Aaron Rupar?." A user said, "This is crazy. Elon brings Trump back but suspends journalists like Aaron Rupar, who does the best live reports. What rule did he violate?" Max Abrahms tweeted, "Why are Twitter people calling Aaron Rupar a journalist?"

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.