Elon Musk has invited 'suspended' journalists to return to Twitter, but there’s a 'catch': report

23 December 2022

Since taking over as Twitter’s new owner in October, Elon Musk has restored the accounts of some MAGA Republicans who were indefinitely suspended — including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former President Donald Trump, who so far, has yet to take Musk up on his offer to return to the platform. Musk has been describing himself as a free speech “absolutist” and railing against “woke” progressives he views as intolerant of the First Amendment.

But Musk has suspended some journalists from Twitter for, he said, violating the company’s terms of service. Musk later said the journalists are welcome to return to the platform if they are willing to abide by Twitter’s rules, but according to the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi, there’s a “catch.”

In an article published on December 23, Farhi explains, “Twitter has privately demanded that the suspended journalists delete the tweets that drew Musk’s ire in the first place — a condition the reporters have refused to accept. The result is a stalemate: The suspended journalists remain in Twitter purgatory, unable to access their accounts.”

Farhi adds, “The tweets in question mentioned or linked to a Twitter account called @ElonJet, which tracked the whereabouts of Musk’s private jet using publicly available flight data. All of the journalists were covering or commenting on Musk’s decision to banish the account, which he said threatened his family’s safety by tracking his movements. None of the journalists’ tweets about @ElonJet, however, disclosed information about Musk or his jet’s location, despite Musk’s claim that the journalists had posted ‘assassination coordinates.’”

The journalists Musk has suspended from Twitter include CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, the New York Times’ Ryan Mac, the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and The Intercept’s Micah Lee. Even Fox Business’ Susan Li was suspended.

Reporters suspended by Musk, Farhi notes, have maintained that they didn’t violate Twitter’s policy against doxing, which Farhi describes as “the unsavory practice of posting personal information without permission.”

“Accepting Musk’s demand for deletion, they say, would amount to a false admission of wrongdoing and an abdication to Musk’s subjective enforcement,” Farhi observes. “They remain suspended”

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