Elon Musk said that journalists will not get special treatment on Twitter. This comes after Twitter suspended several accounts of prominent journalists who reported on them including The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.
Elon Musk spoke briefly during the Twitter Space Chat, an audio feature on the platform, hosted by BuzzFeed News tech reporter Katie Notopoulos. Other journalists joined the space, including one recently suspended from Twitter.
According to a recording shared online, Elon Musk said that it is inappropriate to show real-time information about someone’s location. In future, there will be no difference between journalists and common people. Everyone is being treated the same,” Musk said.
They are not special because you are a journalist, said the billionaire, they are just a Twitter citizen. According to the clip, he said, “Doctors, you are suspended, end of story.” Elon Musk warned in space that trying to be “clever” by posting a link to any real-time information was no different than providing real-time information.
Elon Musk suddenly left the space after two and a half minutes. Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
His comments came after Twitter suspended the account of Jack Sweeney, a 20-year-old student who created a tool that tweets live updates about the location of Elon Musk’s private jet. Twitter has changed its rules to prevent users from posting a person’s “live location”.
CNN described the suspension of the accounts of some of its reporters as worrying but not surprising. Meanwhile, The Post said in a statement that the suspension of its reporter Drew Harwell’s account undermined Musk’s plan to ensure Twitter was a platform for free speech.