‘Criticizing me is fine, doxing my location is not’, says Musk after cracking the whip on journalists 

San Francisco: Billionaire Elon Musk abruptly banned the accounts of several tech journalists from Twitter, including ones from the New York Times and the Washington Post, with the site showing 'account suspended' notices for them.  

The suspended accounts include profiles of journalists from acclaimed media houses such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc.

Musk stated that the users were banned because they shared information about the @ElonJet account that tracks the movements of Musk’s private jet, which the Tesla CEO claims threatens his and his family’s safety. 

Responding to a tweet on the suspension, Musk tweeted: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not”. 

Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022

Among those whose accounts were suspended without warning were Matt Binder of Mashable, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster.

Incidentally, all the journalists who have been banned from Twitter have tweeted about Musk’s crackdown on sharing the location details of his private jets.

The move came just a day after the platform suspended a popular account, @ElonJet, that was tracking Elon Musk’s private jet.

“If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!” he tweeted later.

If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022

Later, Elon Musk started a Twitter poll asking followers to vote on when to reinstate the accounts on the platform, with early results showing 57% voting ‘Now’.

Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022