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Elon Musk has said that Washington Post tech reporter Taylor Lorenz was suspended from Twitter for what he called “prior doxxing.”
Ms. Lorenz became the latest journalist to face suspension at the weekend following a series of bans targeting journalists who had recently covered or criticized Mr. Musk. The CEO of Tesla and the head of Twitter felt that the suspensions were only for journalists covering public information about their private jet, calling it “doxxing”.
However, Ms. Lorenz’s suspension came after she tweeted at Mr. Musk seeking comment on a story he was working on with his colleague Drew Harwell, who has already had access to Twitter revoked.
“Hi Elon, @drewhartwell and I have sent you a couple of emails about this. We have learned some information that we would like to share and discuss with you. We take this very seriously and want to make sure it is pursued the right way. Thanks Ms. Lorenz wrote.
On Sunday, Mr. Musk tweeted that Ms. Lorenz had been “temporarily suspended due to prior doxxing by this account. Will be lifted shortly.”
While Mr Musk did not specify the alleged “doxxing”, Ms Lorenz has faced recent criticism from conservatives after identifying the person behind the “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account, which mocks users of that platform, Mediaite noted.
Mr Musk has previously boosted the right-wing Twitter account.
In a statement Sunday, Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee criticized Lorenz’s Twitter suspension.
“The arbitrary suspension of another Post reporter further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to operate Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech,” he said. “Once again, the suspension came without any notice, process or explanation, this time as our reporter only sought comment from Musk for a story. Mail reporters must be reinstated immediately, unconditionally arbitrary”.
On Saturday, Ms. Lorenz wrote in a blog post on Substack that “my colleague Drew Harwell, who has also been suspended, and I have been working on a story about Musk and were hoping to hear from him. Over the last few days We have tried to reach him multiple times via email.At 8:30pm EST I tried to reach out for comment on Twitter.”
“When I went to log in and see if I had answered our query, I was suspended. I received no communication from the company as to why I was suspended or what terms I violated,” she added.
“Musk’s arbitrary suspensions of journalists who report on him should concern anyone who values journalism and free speech,” he wrote.
Twitter has suspended and reinstated several journalists who wrote or linked to the @elonjet account, which tracks the movement of Mr Musk’s private jet. Influencer manager Ariadna Jacob also recently complained about Ms. Lorenz to Mr. Musk after an article the reporter wrote about her was published, The Daily Beast noted.
Ms. Jacob argued that Ms. Lorenz had doxxed her in the New York Times article. In the report, Ms. Lorenz linked to a publicly available Zillow listing of a home for influencers.
“Such disgraceful behavior will not be tolerated in the future,” wrote Mr. Musk on Friday.
The Independent has contacted Twitter for comment.