Twitter cites 'doxxing' to suspend accounts of journalists; What else did Musk say?
New York, Dec 16: Elon Musk's Twitter has recently suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists, including ones from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Mashable, The Intercept and independent journalists who were covering the micro-blogging platform's developments in the past few months.
However, it not immediately known as to why their Twitter accounts were suspended, but each page included a message that read the 'account suspended' as it 'violated the Twitter rules', the media has reported.
Twitter also started suspending accounts that was live-tracking private jets, including one that tracks a jet owned by Musk called @ElonJet.
Elon Musk's Twitter dissolves its Trust and Safety advisory group
While responding to a tweet on the suspension of accounts of journalists, Musk notified the world of the Twitter updated policies banning sharing of personal information, called doxxing. Musk wrote,"Same doxxing rules apply to "journalists" as to everyone else.'' "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not," Musk added.
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Musk later made it clear that accounts indulging in doxxing will be penalized. "Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7 day suspension," the Tesla CEO wrote.
Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7 day suspension
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Recommended Video
The
Tesla
boss
on
Thursday
claimed
his
little
son,
who
goes
by
the
name
'X',
was
followed
by
a
'crazy
stalker' on
the
road
in
Los
Angeles.
On
Friday,
he
also
said
that
a
time
delay
on
reporting
location
that
doesn't
put
people
at
serious
risk
of
being
killed
is
fine.
Musk
had
earlier
said
that
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,''
Musk
wrote.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
For the unversed, Doxxing (also spelled doxing) is the act of revealing someone's personal information online. Doxxing is a form of online harassment that means publicly exposing someone's real name, address, job, or other identifying data.
Twitter to relaunch premium subscription service Blue from tomorrow: What else did Musk say?
Among several changes that Twitter has witnessed since the takeover by Musk, the company is now leaning heavily on automation to moderate content, doing away with certain manual reviews and favouring restrictions on distribution rather than removing certain speech outright, its new head of trust and safety Ella Irwin was recently quoted as saying by Reuters.
Musk had acquired Twitter last week in culmination of a USD 44 billion deal. The deal was, however, mired in controversy for several months, before the final takeover happened. Recently, Musk announced that there will be 3 check marks from now on- Gold (companies), Grey (governments) and also the Blue (individuals, celebrities or not), to identify different kinds of users on the social media platform. He also called it to be a 'painful, but necessary' measure.