The EU has threatened Twitter owner Elon Musk with sanctions following the sudden suspension of the accounts of several journalists covering the firm.
New York Times, CNN, and Washington Post journalists were among those shut out of their accounts.
EU commissioner Vera Jourova emphasized that respect for media freedom is required by the EU’s Digital Services Act.
“Elon Musk should recognize this. There are certain red lines. And soon, sanctions,” she tweeted.
She stated, “News of journalists being arbitrarily suspended from Twitter is troubling.”
“The Digital Services Act of the EU mandates respect for media freedom and fundamental rights. This is bolstered by the Media Freedom Act.”
The fines could be implemented by a new Digital Services Act, which is now being reviewed by the EU Parliament but could be in effect by the end of the year.
Under the wording of the proposed new law, the EU Commission will be permitted to levy fines of up to 6% of a service provider’s global revenue if it determines that the company has violated its standards.
In severe circumstances, the EU could seek a court to suspend a rogue service, but only if it is “refusing to comply with important duties and jeopardizing the lives and safety of people.”
A Twitter representative previously informed the technology website The Verge that the limitation pertains to the live sharing of location information.
It follows Mr. Musk’s threat to sue the proprietor of a profile that tracks his private jet.
On the list of blacklisted journalists are also Micha Lee of The Intercept, Matt Binder of Mashable, and independent reporters Aaron Rupar and Tony Webber.
The suspensions were deemed “questionable and unfortunate” by a New York Times official, who added that neither the newspaper nor reporter Ryan Mac got an explanation for the decision.
CNN stated that the “impulsive and unjustifiable suspension of several reporters” is “concerning but not unexpected.” It has requested an explanation from Twitter and will “reevaluate our partnership based on Twitter’s response.”
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, whose account was among those stopped, described the action as “potentially frightening” for journalists, especially those who cover Mr. Musk’s other companies.
In October, when he finalized his takeover of the social media site, Mr. Musk tweeted to potential advertisers that he purchased Twitter because he wanted to “attempt to serve humanity” and that he desired for “civilization to have a digital town square.”
Mr. Musk has not explicitly commented on the bans, although he did state in a tweet that “critiquing me all day is perfectly acceptable, but doxxing my real-time whereabouts and endangering my family is not.”
Doxxing, which refers to the sharing of private information about persons online, results in the temporary suspension of accounts for seven days.
He tweeted, “The same doxxing standards apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else.” They posted my exact real-time position, which is essentially assassination coordinates, in clear violation of Twitter’s terms of service.
He said, “If somebody published the real-time locations and addresses of New York Times writers, the FBI would investigate, there would be hearings on Capitol Hill, and Vice President Biden would give speeches about the end of democracy!”
Since then, the technology magnate has created a poll asking whether he should unfreeze the accounts “immediately” or “in seven days,” indicating that the decision may be reversed sooner rather than later.
Matt Binder, a journalist with Mashable and one of those blacklisted, stated that he was unaware of the reason for his suspension.
He told, “I’ve been critical of Musk in my reporting.”
However, he stated that Mr. Musk’s assertion that “everyone who got suspended was doxxing him because of the jet tracker” was false.
He stated that he had never tweeted a link to the tracker, but had mentioned the suspended account.
“There are hundreds of accounts every minute that tweeted the link, so it’s clear that those that were suspended were hand-picked.”
Mr. Binder, who has been using Twitter since 2008 and reporting on the social networking site’s developments, was astonished by the ban on journalists.
I knew it was a possibility, but I didn’t believe he would do it because it would destroy the platform’s image as a free-speech forum.
Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, told The Verge that restrictions are due to a new rule announced on Wednesday that restricts “live location information, including information provided directly on Twitter or links to third-party URL(s) of travel routes.”
Mrs. Irwin told the source, “Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that breach our privacy regulations and put other users in danger.”
We make no exceptions for journalists or any other accounts.
At the center of all of this is a furious father who says that the sharing of his private jet’s position data led to a security problem involving his young son X. The original Twitter feed was harvesting publicly available flight data. Perhaps not very decent, but not unlawful.
His anger now extends to journalists, whom he claims also published his location – which Twitter uses to sell advertisements, even though users can opt-out of sharing it.
However, this method of moderation is essentially wrong. I’m sure many of us wish we could deactivate or block social media accounts that broadcast stuff we find offensive.
Elon Musk has taken a highly personal approach to content monitoring before. He refused to reinstate Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Twitter because he had exploited the deaths of children to advance his career, citing the loss of his 10-week-old son Alexander.
Additionally, he has suspended accounts that impersonated him.
Elon Musk has fundamentally discredited his much-touted devotion to “free expression.” Free speech, so long as it does not personally offend him, appears to be the message.
Later, Mr. Musk spoke with journalists through Twitter Spaces, a feature of the social media platform that enables live audio interactions.
His brief visit drew a crowd of 30,000, but he left after answering a few questions on the ban, and Twitter Spaces has since appeared to be banned.
Twitter suspended @ElonJet and other accounts that used publicly available information to track his private plane on Wednesday.
Jack Sweeney, 20, the owner of @ElonJet, also had his account disabled. Since then, Mr. Musk has pledged to pursue legal action against him and “organizations who supported harm to my family.”
Mr. Musk stated that a “crazy stalker” utilized live location sharing to track down and confront a vehicle carrying his children in Los Angeles.
Twitter has also suspended the official Mastodon account, which has developed as an alternative to Twitter since October when Elon Musk purchased it for $44 billion.
Thursday, Mastodon promoted Mr. Sweeney’s new account on Twitter, as reported by the New York Times.
Links to individual Mastodon accounts appear to be prohibited as well. An error message informed users that Twitter or its partners have “identified” Mastodon URLs as “possibly dangerous.”
