Musk Suspends Twitter Accounts of Prominent Journalists

Facts

• Several prominent journalists who recently wrote about Twitter owner Elon Musk had their Twitter accounts suspended on Thursday, allegedly for breaking a rule against the publishing of personal information called "doxxing."
• CNN’s Donie O'Sullivan, New York Times tech reporter Ryan Mac, the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, and former Vox writer Aaron Rupar were among those banned.
• The suspensions come one day after Musk banned an account that was tracking flights he made on a private jet. At the same time, Twitter adopted a policy forbidding the sharing of another person’s current geographic location without consent; many of the banned journalists had been reporting on the new policy.
• Musk classified tweets from the @ElonJet account, and any reporting of individuals’ real-time location, as “doxxing.” He was motivated to take action, he said via tweet, by an incident allegedly featuring a stalker jumping on the hood of a car carrying his son.
• In a tweet, Musk said, "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not." He described the posting of his whereabouts as giving "basically assassination coordinates."
• Most of the media outlets employing the banned journalists put out statements opposing Twitter’s actions, while they've also been condemned by officials from France, Germany, the UK, the UN and the EU.

Sources: Reuters, FOX News, PBS NewsHour, Daily Mail, and Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by AlterNet. This is an attack on press freedom. Ever since he took over Twitter this fall, Musk has practiced the philosophy of "free speech for me, but not for thee." He started by banning critical comedians, and now he’s gone on a banning spree against journalists who cover him. He always has some excuse about rule-breaking, but it’s more likely he just doesn’t mean what he's often said about unfettered free speech.
• Narrative B, as provided by InfoWars. These aren’t journalists Musk is banning, they’re activists disguising themselves as members of the media, and their so-called reporting has put Musk and his family at risk of physical attack. In the past, these same people called for banning the accounts of right-wing individuals for far less egregious actions, so they should be able to understand why Musk is taking this action.