Elon Musk restored the Twitter accounts of various journalists that were suspended for a day due to claims that those journalists showed the real-time location of Musk.
The restorations were made after the former action led to strong criticism from varied corners of the world, including government officials, advocacy groups, and journalism organizations on Friday.
“The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
Elon Musk later started a poll on Twitter asking whether the suspended accounts be restored, in which 58.7% voted in favor.
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
The accounts, suspended on Thursday evening including journalists from CNN, and Washington Post, were criticized on the basis that the act was threatening press freedom.
Officials from France, Germany, Britain, and the European Union condemned the suspensions.
The action was labeled “Thursday Night Massacre” by one well-known security researcher and is being considered by critics as a piece of new evidence that the billionaire owner, who is a self-claimed “free speech absolutist,” is sabotaging speech and account holders he feels wrong about.
After the action, Tesla’s share, an electric car company headed by Elon Musk, went down by 4.7% on Friday and reported their worst weekly loss since March 2020. This has also upset investors who are developing disturbing thoughts regarding the slowing global economy and Elon’s distraction.
Roland Lescure, the French minister of industry, and Melissa Fleming, head of communications for the United Nations tweeted commenting on this.
Suite à la suspension de comptes de journalistes par @elonmusk, je suspends toute activité sur @Twitter jusqu’à nouvel ordre.
— Roland Lescure (@RolandLescure) December 16, 2022
Suite à la suspension de comptes de journalistes par @elonmusk, je suspends toute activité sur @Twitter jusqu’à nouvel ordre.
— Roland Lescure (@RolandLescure) December 16, 2022
Despite Musk’s earlier post stating that he would not suspend ElonJet in the name of free expression, Twitter suspended the account on Wednesday along with others that tracked private aircraft.
Within a short period of time, Twitter modified its privacy policies to forbid the dissemination of “live location information.”
