(CNN) — Newly owned Twitter billionaire Elon Musk said journalists whose Twitter accounts were suspended Thursday published information about his whereabouts, which he described as posting “assassination coordinates.” the day before.
Musk said in a tweet: “They have published my location, and this is considered the publication of the coordinates for the assassination, in clear violation of Twitter rules.”
Although CNN’s Donnie O’Sullivan, among several reporters whose accounts were banned hours earlier, shared no information about the billionaire’s whereabouts, shortly before his account was suspended, O’Sullivan said Twitter had suspended an account for rival Mastodon, through which ElonJet’s account is tracking Musk’s private jet on its platform, after the billionaire blocked ElonJet from Twitter on Wednesday.
And just last month, Musk promised he would allow an account that tracks his private plane to remain on the platform as a sign of his commitment to freedom of expression, but the account was permanently banned.
The reactions followed Musk’s decision to suspend reporting by journalists, as the American Civil Liberties Union condemned the decision in a statement released Thursday evening.
“It is impossible to balance Twitter’s aspirations for free speech with taking down the accounts of critical journalists,” said Anthony De Romero, the union’s executive director. “The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects Musk’s right to do so, but it’s a bad decision, and their accounts must be restored immediately.”
Meanwhile, on Friday, the European Commission warned Elon Musk it was ready to take action against Twitter to suspend accounts belonging to tech journalists.
“The reports of the arbitrary suspension of journalists’ Twitter accounts are alarming,” said European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova, adding on Twitter that “the EU’s Digital Services Law requires respect for media freedom and fundamental rights , and this is reinforced in the private media freedom charter.” We,” and she added, “Elon Musk should be aware of that, there are red lines and sanctions soon.”
The German foreign ministry also criticized Twitter for suspending the accounts of tech journalists, and the ministry tweeted: “Press freedom cannot be turned on and off as one wishes” and added: “Starting from today, those journalists whose accounts have been suspended can no longer follow us and comment.”We have a problem with that,” said the Twitter user.
