Twitter News: In a latest development, Elon Musk on Saturday lifted the suspension of the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were banned by him earlier. According to reports, he had banned their accounts following the results of a poll he conducted among Twitter users.
The decision invited so much of criticism following which Musk reportedly decided to lift the ban. "The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now," the Twitter owner tweeted.
According to media reports, Musk polled users for 24 hours to determine whether the accounts should be restored "immediately" or in "7 days."In a 59-41 point split, most of the Twitter users chose "now." The survey received responses from about 3.7 million Twitter users. However, in a different poll conducted on Thursday, "now" also outperformed "tomorrow," "in 7 days," and "longer," but Musk claimed the poll featured too many options.
How did the controversy begin?
The controversy actually began when @ElonJet, an account that only tracked Musk's use of private aircraft, was suspended. Musk said the account was stopped for a "physical safety violation" and was consequently suspended because it was "doxxing real-time location info" and posting videos of a "crazy stalker" who was harassing his child in Los Angeles while believing the Twitter owner was present. Musk also vowed to file a lawsuit against the account holder.
According to reports, many chastised the premise of Musk's "doxxing" charges because it is well known that the billionaire uses a private plane, and others charged him with hypocrisy because he had described himself as a "free speech absolutist" when he bought Twitter.
Twitter suspended accounts of several US-based journalists
It is pertinent to mention here that Twitter suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner Musk, among them reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications.
The suspensions came as Musk has been making major changes to content moderation on Twitter. He has tried, through the release of selected company documents dubbed as “The Twitter Files,” to claim the platform suppressed right-wing voices under its previous leaders.
(With inputs from agencies)
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