December 2022 Twitter suspensions

The Thursday Night Massacre refers to the suspension of the accounts of several high-profile journalists that occurred on December 15, 2022, on the social media network Twitter. At least nine journalists who covered the platform and its owners and CEO, Elon Musk, were suspended without warning, including reporters like Keith Olbermann, Steven L. Herman, and Donie O'Sullivan, and journalists from such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN.^[1][2][3][4]

Although the journalists were not initially provided specific reasons for the suspensions,^[1] Twitter and Musk later stated it was the result of the doxxing and violating Twitter's rule banning accounts that tracked the location and movement of private jets.^[1][2][5] That rule was created on December 14, the day before the suspensions, reportedly in response to the account @ElonJet tracking Musk's private jet. That account and others tracking jet movements had also been suspended on December 14.^[2][6][7]

Several of the journalists said they had not violated the rule, though some included links to @ElonJet in their articles or reported upon the account.^[1][3][4] Olbermann's account was suspended shortly after he had criticized the other suspensions.^[1] Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell accused Musk of engaging in the same type of doxxing he proported to be fighting, particularly in his actions regarding the Hunter Biden laptop controversy.^[3]

Musk wrote of the suspensions, "Same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else",^[1][8] and "You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it."^[2][3][9] The account suspensions were criticized by several commentators, including media outlets and international representatives,^[1][9] some of which said they undermined Musk's repeated claims of supporting "free speech" on Twitter.^[1] The actions were condemned by representatives of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, the European Union, the European Commission, and others.^[9]

Business magnate Elon Musk purchased the social media company Twitter for $44 billion on October 27, 2022, following a lengthy process that began when Musk made the initial purchase offer on April 14, 2022, then later tried to rescind it after it was accepted. The company filed a lawsuit against Musk to compel him to honor the original deal, and although Musk originally intended to fight the lawsuit in court, he later reversed course and announced he would move forward with the acquisition.^[10][11] Upon acquiring Twitter, Musk fired several top executives,^[12] laid off half of the company's workforce,^[10] and proposed several reforms to the platform, including making its algorithms open-sourced and combatting spambot accounts.^[11]

One of Musk's pledges upon acquiring Twitter was and the promotion of free speech. He had previously complained that Twitter had become too restrictive and censorious, particularly toward users holding politically conservative views and positions, and said he would allow all speech permissible by law on Twitter.^[1][8][9] He had described himself as a "free speech absolutist".^[9] As part of this conviction, Musk restored several accounts who had been permanently suspended before his acquisition of the company.^[1] Among them was former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose account @realDonaldTrump had been banned for tweets that allegedly helped incite the January 6 United States Capitol attack.^[1][8]

Prior to the Twitter account suspensions of December 14 and 15, 2022, Musk had been outspokenly opposed to Twitter accounts that tracked his private jet.^[2] Specifically, he had criticized the Internet bot account @ElonJet, which used publicly-available flight data to track trips taken by Musk's private plane. The account, which was started by a college student named Jack Sweeney,^{[3][7][6][13]} had more than 500,000 followers as of December 2022,^[5][7][13] Sweeney also ran a version of the bot on the social networking platform Instagram.^[13] In January 2022, before Musk had purchased Twitter, he privately offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account. Sweeney rejected the offer and instead asked for $50,000, to which Musk did not agree.^[7][8][13] After Musk purchased Twitter, Sweeney cited screenshots provided by a Twitter employee that indicated the company limited the @ElonJet account's reach, though he said those restrictions were later removed.^[7][13] In November 2022, Musk publicly stated that he would not ban @ElonJet, despite claiming the account "is a direct personal safety risk", because of Musk's "commitment to free speech",^{[1][2][7][9][13]} which he said included "not banning the account following my plane".^[4][5][6][8]

On December 14, 2022, a new Twitter rule was created banning accounts that tracked the location and movement of private jets.^[2] Specifically, Twitter's "private information and media policy" was modified to include a clause prohibiting the sharing of live location data, stating "we will remove any tweets or accounts that share someone's live location".^[6][7] CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan wrote that the new rules "appeared to be designed specifically to justify the removal of the jet-tracking account".^[7] Twitter's @TwitterSafety account issued Tweets on December 14 about the policy change, writing that it would remove tweets that posted live location information and suspend accounts specifically dedicated to doing so. It clarified that users were allowed to share their own live location and the "historical" location of someone else, meaning "not same-day" information.^[6] Musk himself also tweeted about the new policy on December 14, writing:^[8][7]

Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.

The same day the new rule was implemented, Twitter suspended the @ElonJet account, as well as the personal account of Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney), the creator of @ElonJet.^{[1][5][7][13]} Other accounts dedicated to tracking private airplanes were also suspended,^[5][6] including some that followed the planes of other billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg were also suspended. Some of those additional accounts had also been operated by Sweeney.^[5][6] Sweeney defended his accounts, telling NBC News: "All I'm doing is taking their data and putting it on Twitter. There's nothing I'm doing wrong, and I didn't mean any harm."^[5]

In another tweet written on December 14, Musk claimed that a car carrying one of his children had been followed by a "crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood".^[1][5][6] In the same tweet, Musk claimed he would be taking legal action against Sweeney and "organizations who supported harm to my family" as a result of the incident.^[6][8] Musk publicly posted a video of a man in his car, which he claimed was the person who had been allegedly stalking him. The man in the video was also using his smartphone to record Musk, and Musk also showed the man's license plate in the video and asked his followers if anyone recognized him.^[1] The Los Angeles Police Department said on December 16, 2022, that no police report had been filed stemming from the incident.^[1]

On December 15, 2022, the social networking service Twitter suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists who covered the platform and its owner and CEO, Elon Musk. These journalists included:^[1][2][3][4]

• Matt Binder (@mattbinder), reporter for Mashable
• Drew Harwell (@drewharwell), reporter for The Washington Post
• Steven L. Herman (@W7VOA), chief national correspondent for Voice of America
• Micah Lee (@micahflee), reporter for The Intercept
• Ryan Mac (@rmac18), reporter for The New York Times
• Donie O'Sullivan (@donie), reporter for CNN
• Keith Olbermann (@keitholbermann), American political commentator
• Aaron Rupar (@atrupar), freelance journalist
• Tony Webster, freelance journalist

Additionally, the Twitter account (@joinmastodon) for Mastodon, a social media platform and a competitor of Twitter, was was also suspended on the evening of December 15,^[1][2][4] and users were unable to tweet or share any links to Mastodon pages on Twitter.^[2] Twitter did not initially state why the Mastodon account was suspended or what specific rule it broke, but earlier in the day, the account had tweeted a link to its an account on its own platform tracking the location of Musk's jet.^[8] Although Mastodon's account was suspended and its links were blocked on Twitter, the term "Mastodon" was a trending topic on Twitter following the changes.^[2]

Though it was not initially clear whether or not the suspensions would be permanent, Musk later clarified in a response to another Twitter user they would last for seven days.^[1][2][4]

Musk publicly responded to the journalist suspensions a few hours before they occurred.^[1] He said the accounts were suspended for doxxing,^[1][2][5] specifically in violation of Twitter's new rule banning accounts that tracked the location and movement of private jets. That new rule was created on December 14, 2022, the day before the journalist accounts were suspended, in response to accounts that provided information about Musk's own private jet.^[2][5] Musk claimed the banned accounts posted "my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service".^[1][2]

Musk defended his actions in a series of tweets, many of which were responses to other users. In one, he wrote: "Same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else".^[1][8][2] In another, he wrote: "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not."^[1][2][4] Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, told Reuters news service late December 15 night that the organization manually reviewed "any and all accounts" in violation of the new policy, which included posting direct links to the @ElonJet account. She said: "I understand that the focus seems to be mainly on journalist accounts but we applied the policy equally to journalists and non-journalist accounts today."^[9]

A few hours after the suspensions, Musk defended the suspensions on a discussion in Twitter Spaces, a live audio conversations function on the website. The discussion was hosted by BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos included more than 30,000 listeners. During that conversation, Musk repeatedly said, "You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it."^[2][3][9] Drew Harwell, one of the suspended journalists, briefly engaged in a conversation with Musk, asking questions and defending his actions. Musk left the discussion a few minutes after joining it, after which the Twitter Spaces feature was abruptly shut down. Musk later said Twitter Spaces was temporarily stopped due to a "Legacy bug" and that it "should be working tomorrow".^[2]

The journalists were not initially told their accounts had been permanently suspended, and were not informed why they had been suspended or what specific rule they had violated. Immediately after the suspension, Rupar said he was given no information about why the action occurred,^[1][3] saying, "(I) haven't been given a reason, explanation, or been looped in about any possible duration."^[1] Rupar added that he "didn't post anything remotely controversial today or anytime recently".^[1] Olbermann's suspension occurred shortly after he had criticized the suspension of some of the other journalists.^[1] Rupar's suspension came one day after he had shared a Substack by Noah Berlatsky that criticized Musk, entitled "Elon Musk's Reactionary Populism".^[4] After Musk's explanation about the suspensions, Aaron Rupar said he had not posted anything that violated the policy about disclosing locations, adding: "Unless the policy is that you criticize Elon and you get banned."^[4]

Some of the suspended journalists had written stories about Musk suspending @ElonJet,^[3] though others had not. Rupar told CNN that he had never posted anything about @ElonJet prior to his suspension.^[4] Drew Harwell said he did not share information about Musk's private jet or personal location, but simply posted a link to the @ElonJet account in his stories.^[9][3] Harwell also accused Musk of engaging in some of the same doxxing techniques that he claimed the suspended accounts committed. In a direct conversation with Musk on Twitter Spaces, Harwell said: "We have to acknowledge you are using the same exact link-blocking technique that you have criticized as part of the Hunter Biden-New York Post story in 2020."^[3]

New York Times external communications director Charlie Stadtlander said the suspensions were "questionable and unfortunate", and that neither the Times nor Ryan Mac were provided an adequate explanation for the decision.^[1] Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said the suspensions occurred "without warning, process, or explanation" and that they "directly undermined Elon Musk's claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech".^[1] CNN issued a statement that Musk's actions were "impulsive and unjustified" but "not surprising", and that it would reevaluate its relationship with Twitter as a result. The statement also said: "Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter."^[1] Oliver Darcy, senior media reporter with CNN, wrote that Musk's doxxing allegations were "not what those journalists did".^[1]

Several commentators criticized Twitter and Musk for the suspensions, including media outlets and international representatives,^[1][9] including officials from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations and European Union.^[9] Many of those critical of the actions said they undermined Musk's claims of supporting free speech.^[1] Drew Harwell, whose account had also been suspended, said: "Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech. I think that calls into question his commitment."^[4] The phrase "Thursday Night Massacre" was a trending topic on Twitter following the suspensions, and came to be used as a term representing the incident.^[1][9] The news website Mediaite used the phrase in a headline describing the suspension and subsequent fallout.^[1]

United Nations spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said she was "deeply disturbed" by the suspensions and that "media freedom is not a toy".^[9] U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wrote public tweets directly to Musk, saying the suspensions were irresponsible actions for a public figure, and that abusing power and banning journalists only increased the scrutiny around him, adding: "Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone."^[1] Brendan Carr, a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission, said after the suspensions that he was not yet familiar with the circumstances of the actions, but that "one person should not get to decide who participates in the digital town square".^[3]

Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, said on December 6 that Musk's suspension of the journalists could violate the European Commission's Digital Services Act and that sanctions against him were possible, writing "News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying."^[3] Roland Lescure, the French Minister of Commerce, suspended his own Twitter activity in response to the suspensions.^[9] The German Foreign Office warned Twitter the move jeopardized press freedom.^[9] The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing said the suspensions "violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow the unfiltered distribution of information that is already in the public square".^[9]

On December 15, Musk issued a public Twitter poll asking users when the suspensions should be lifted. The top result after the poll closed was "Now." Afterward, Musk wrote "Sorry too many options. Will redo poll", before issuing a new poll altogether.^[1][8] Musk had previously issued a similar poll asking whether Donald Trump's Twitter account should be reinstated, and he lifted the suspension on Trump shortly after the majority in that poll suggested it should be, with Musk writing, "The people have spoken... Vox Populi, Vox Dei".^[8] However, Forbes magazine wrote that it is unclear whether these unscientific polls truly inform or influence Musk's actions.^[8]

• Twitter suspensions
• Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk