In the past 48 hours, Elon Musk has decided to attack the Twitter accounts that were causing him problems. A wave of banishments followed.
There is something rotten in the kingdom of Twitter. Things are not going quite as Elon Musk had hoped since his takeover of the social network. After many departures and dismissals and the loss of several advertisers, the billionaire decides to apply his variable geometry conception of freedom of expression.
It all starts with a jet
During his takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk advocated freedom of expression on the platform, without any limit, except that of the law which reminded him that certain words were reprehensible. In this sense, the billionaire announced that the accounts banned before its acquisition would be entitled to a second chance. It’s rather coherent, even if it even rehabilitates neo-Nazis…
Attention, ” new rule! On December 14, Elon Musk decided to ban the Twitter account @ElonJet following the movements of his private jet, under the pretext that he don’t follow twitter rules “. In the aftermath, Jack Sweeney, the account manager, suffered the same fate. The reason ? The real-time localization of an individual represents, according to him, ” a breach of physical security“, while this data is publicly available. We will pass over the fact that he himself asked for information about a person from his 121.6 million subscribers, supporting license plate…
The Mastodon in a china shop
Acting like a frustrated child, Elon Musk went so far as to ban the publication of links to other platforms offering the tracking of his private jet. It is thus impossible to publish a link to the Instagram account Elon Musk’s Jet. The official account of Mastodon, a competing social network, also promoted the jet tracking account on its platform, resulting in its ban as well. Since then, it has become impossible to publish any Mastodon link on Twitter.
Several well-known journalists who commented on the case, including Ryan Mac of the New York Times Donie O’Sullivan of CNNDrew Harwell of washington post Micha Lee ofThe Interceptand Matt Binder, Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster ofMashable, were also banned from Twitter. The downward spiral continues for Elon Musk and his ego which, according to a Twitter employee quoted by journalist Kylie Robison, “is paranoid“. The big boss would make all these decisions unilaterally without even telling his team.
FinalSpace
Technical bug? Accounts banned from the platform could still join a Twitter Spaces audio conference. Drew Harwell, Matt Binder and the ElonJet account thus created a discussion in which Elon Musk himself participated. Faced with a legitimate contradiction, he ended his argument with “you have doxed [NDLR : action de dévoiler des informations personnelles de quelqu’un d’autre en ligne]you have been suspended, end of storyand then left without further preamble.
Here is Elon’s full appearance in @katienotopoulos‘spaces with banned journalists tonight pic.twitter.com/1xPFtrVjf6
— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) December 16, 2022
Even stronger: Elon Musk made disable the Twitter Spaces feature, now unavailable. We imagine that this is a temporary decision to completely prevent banned accounts from joining these chat rooms, but no official communication has been made for the moment.
Cry Me A River
Streisand effect obliges, Elon Musk finds himself under the fire of strong criticism, which seems to amuse him in view of his tweet “I love Barbara Streisand lol“. He therefore decided to carry out a survey on his Twitter account to ask when the accounts of those who “have done doxxing on [son] exact location in real time“. But not everything went as he had hoped…
With more than 535,000 votes, it is the “nowwho won. It’s hard to keep your community united by your side when you advocate absolute freedom of expression and want to censor journalists. Never mind, the billionaire has found an excuse not to follow the “voice of the people(remember, he relied on a poll to reinstate Donald Trump, quoting the phrase “Vox Populi vox dei“): “Sorry, there were too many options“.
A second survey is therefore underway at the time of writing these lines, with only two options:now” Where “in 7 days“.
Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
Bad luck for Elon Musk, the “Now» currently prevails.
The European Union gets involved
Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission spoke publicly about this on Twitter :
The news about the arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is disturbing. The EU Digital Services Act requires respect for media freedom and fundamental rights. This requirement is reinforced by our Freedom of the Media Act. Elon Musk must be aware of this. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon.
So here is a new thrilling chapter that opens in the great saga of the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk…
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