Following the suspension of the account on Elon Musk’s private jet, Twitter also blew up Mastodon’s and even suspended eight journalists. All is well with the blue bird.
A lot has happened on Twitter in the past few hours. And nothing good for freedom of expression.
Musk cleans up his Twitter
The events were so chained on Twitter from Wednesday to today that even the site Twitter is Going Great! is not yet updated. However, this site which takes up chronologically everything that has happened on the social network since its takeover by Elon Musk would certainly have something to eat.
It all started when Twitter banned the account @ElonJet. The latter, which follows the movements of the private jet of the billionaire in order to criticize its ecological impact, however, should not be. Last November, Musk said that although it is a ” direct risk to personal safety that account would remain in place. Once again, the man broke his promise.
Following this suspension, the official account of Mastodon, the main competitor of Twitter, published a tweet to indicate that @ElonJet could still be followed at home. Content that obviously did not please the defender of freedom of expression at all costs, since @joinmastodon is now suspended in turn. Additionally, it is now impossible to post links to major Mastodon instances from Twitter.
An illusory freedom of expression
If all that wasn’t bad enough, Elon Musk is just continuing to prove that his desire to offer total freedom of speech on Twitter only applies when it suits him. Indeed, if previously banned accounts (often for good reasons) are back, like that of Donald Trump, others have just been suspended on a new stroke of blood from the boss of Tesla.
Eight journalists, often from major media (The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, Mashable…) and accustomed to covering the adventures of man saw their account suspended. The official reason? They reportedly posted tweets pointing to @ElonJet on other services, as well as Musk’s location in real time.
The man then attempted to explain his decision within a Twitter Space. But confronted with his contradictions, including by journalist Drew Harwell (suspended, but able to join the audio chat regardless), Musk said, “ You doxx [NDR : action qui consiste à dévoiler des informations personnelles sur quelqu’un en ligne], you are suspended. End of story, that’s all “, before … leaving the conversation.
Sources: Techcrunch, The Verge
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