Elon Musk has restored the Twitter accounts of several journalists who were suspended from the microblogging platform for a day, after they published public data about the private jet of the company’s CEO. A Twitter poll that Elon Musk conducted had showed that a majority of the respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately. Musk had accused the journalists of posting his real-time location, saying it amounted to providing « basically assassination coordinates » for his family.
Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the billionaire’s plane.
The reinstatements came after the unprecedented suspensions evoked stinging criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations from several parts of the globe on Friday, with some saying the microblogging platform was jeopardizing press freedom.
A Twitter poll that Musk conducted later also showed that a majority of the respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately.
« The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now, » Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. A Reuters check showed the suspended accounts, which included journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the , have been reinstated.
The U.N. human rights chief welcomed the reinstatements, but said he continued to have concerns.
« Twitter has a responsibility to respect human rights: @elonmusk should commit to making decision based on publicly-available policies that respect rights, including free speech. Nothing less, » Volker Turk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, wrote.
Donie O’Sullivan, a CNN reporter who had been among the journalists who were suspended and then reinstated, said he still could not tweet because the platform was demanding his removal of one of his posts.
