Twitter’s latest chaos: Journalists purged, Spaces yanked, rival social network suspended

By Michael Grothaus

December 16, 2022

Last night marked perhaps the most chaotic day on Twitter since Elon Musk took control of the platform back in October, which is saying a lot. In an increasingly alarming and tumultuous space of a few hours, Musk’s Twitter did the following:

    Suspended the Twitter account for Mastodon, a growing Twitter rival.

    Suspended the Twitter accounts of journalists who have been critical of Musk. Journalists from CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Mashable, and others were suspended.

    Took the entire Twitter Spaces feature offline after some of the suspended journalists joined a Spaces audio chat for all to listen to—and one in which Musk himself briefly took part in.

The drama began earlier in the day with many journalists reporting on Musk’s banning of the @ElonJet Twitter handle the day before. That account provided data on the flights of Musk’s private jet and is an account that Musk had previously said he would not ban due to his “commitment to free speech.” But (January 04, 2023), Musk now said the sharing of his jet’s information was a form of doxxing and endangered his family.

The Twitter account of Twitter rival Mastodon was then banned after it tweeted a link to the ElonJet Mastodon account. Soon, many journalists who reported on this found themselves unexpectedly suspended from the platform. A few of these journalists then joined a Twitter Spaces hosted by BuzzFeed News reporter Katie Notopoulos—one that Musk himself joined momentarily, but then abruptly left. Shortly after, Twitter’s entire Spaces feature went offline for all users, with Musk claiming the company was “fixing a Legacy bug.”

In response to Musk’s retaliations against journalists, Vera Jourová, vice-president for Values and Transparency in the European Commission, called the actions “worrying” and wanted of EC sanctions against Twitter “soon.”

CNN responded to the suspensions of journalists with a statement saying “Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses the platform.”

The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said, “The suspension of Drew Harwell’s Twitter account directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.”

And, of course, Twitter users had their own responses to the chaotic developments.

And the week’s not even over yet.

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