EU Threatens Elon Musk's Twitter with Sanctions After the Suspension of Journalists

Journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and other outlets were suspended from Twitter on Thursday following Elon Musk's move to permanently restrict an account that automatically tracked the movements of his private jet.

The reporters are known to cover Elon Musk and Twitter, but on Thursday, Dec. 15, their accounts were taken down from the bird app.

But the European Union (EU) did not take this move lightly and threatened Musk with sanctions if he did not abide by the bloc's Digital Services Act.

Media Freedom Act

"News about the arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. EU's Digital Services Act requires respect for media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our #MediaFreedomAct. @elonmusk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon," EU commissioner Vera Jourova said in a tweet.

Following the suspensions, the billionaire tweeted that the "same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else."

He adds that "criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not."

The term 'doxxing' means publishing someone's name, address, or other personal information online.

Musk added that the suspended journalists posted his "exact real-time location," which he says is in direct violation of Twitter's terms of service.

A spokesperson from the social media company confirmed to The Verge that the suspensions were made in relation to the live sharing of location data.

"Ban Evasion"

Musk accused the reporters of engaging in "ban evasion" during a live Twitter Spaces conversation when the ElonJet account was suspended from Twitter, and its owner created accounts on Facebook and Mastodon. He said that by publishing links to those accounts, the journalists were attempting to circumvent his ban.

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post denied that he was sharing Musk's real-time location. Rather he only posted the links to Elon Jet that were no longer online.

Musk responded, "you doxx, you get suspended, end of the story."

CNN said that move was "concerning but not surprising." The outlet's spokesperson noted that Twitter's "increasing instability and volatility" should not be taken lightly by its users.

A New York Times representative called the suspension of the journalists "questionable and unfortunate."

The suspension action follows Twitter's Thursday decision to block an account belonging to Mastodon, a rival of the app.

The Mastodon account said that users might follow @ElonJet, which keeps track of the billionaire's personal plane on its network until it is eventually taken down.