Elon Musk reinstates journalists after banning fiasco: "The people have spoken"

San Francisco, California - Elon Musk has reinstated several Twitter accounts of journalists who he claims doxxed his location, putting him and his family at risk.

Twitter owner Elon Musk reinstated the accounts of journalists he banned for allegedly doxxing his location, which he argues posed a risk to his safety.
Twitter owner Elon Musk reinstated the accounts of journalists he banned for allegedly doxxing his location, which he argues posed a risk to his safety.  © Robyn Beck/AFP

On Thursday, the billionaire suspended the writer's accounts on the basis of unsubstantiated claims, which he described as "assassination coordinates."

Later that same day, after receiving a wave of backlash from critics, Musk posted a poll on Twitter, loosely asking users when he should "unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time."

Early Saturday, the results were in, and, as Musk shared, "The people have spoken."

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"Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now," he added, delivering on the promise shortly after.

The fiasco began when Musk suspended the account of college student Jack Sweeney earlier this week, who published publicly available flight data for the billionaire's private jet on the platform.

Twitter Safety updated its terms of service on Wednesday night, prohibiting sharing "information that would reveal a person’s location, regardless if this information is publicly available."

Journalists that had been writing about the new policy and Sweeney's account banning were then banned themselves for allegedly sharing the information by "posting links to sites with real-time location info."

Twitter re-instates suspended journalist after Elon Musk Poll

Among the suspended journalists were Ryan Mac from The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan from CNN, Matt Binder from Mashable, Drew Harwell from The Washington Post, political pundit Keith Olbermann, and Steve Herman from the government-funded Voice of America.

As of Saturday morning, Olbermann's account remained suspended.

While Elon Musk has vowed to be a free speech absolutist after he acquired Twitter back in October, he has come under fire for banning accounts of those critical of him, while reinstating far-right personalities and groups.

Cover photo: Robyn Beck/AFP

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