Twitter Suspends Accounts For Rival Mastodon And Several High-Profile Journalists

Topline

Twitter suspended accounts late Thursday belonging to rival social media platform Mastodon and several journalists who had reported on Twitter’s new management, in the latest apparent crackdown by Twitter's billionaire owner Elon Musk, despite earlier promises to take a hands-off approach to moderating the social network.

Key Facts

Key Background

Musk promised he would allow all speech permissible by law on Twitter prior to completing his $44 billion deal to buy the company. Shortly after taking over Twitter, Musk drew attention for reinstating former President Donald Trump and several other high-profile conservative figures, but many of Musk’s other recent actions have not been in line with that ideal. The account tracking his jet shared publicly available information, and Musk also tweeted last month he would let it remain online: "My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk." The billionaire has repeatedly said over the past few days the account was threatening his family, and has vowed to take legal action against the 20-year-old University of Central Florida student who ran the account. The account has appeared to bother Musk for at least a year: Late last year, Musk offered the account’s operator $5,000 to stop tracking his jet, according to CNN.

Tangent

Mastodon launched in 2016 but gained widespread attention after Musk's acquisition of Twitter as a potential alternative for those abandoning Twitter, especially users on the political left. Mastodon's network runs off a radically different model from Twitter's, though, as users sign up for different servers that essentially operate as their own communities. The process has caused widespread complaints of confusion among many new users. Twitter is now reportedly preventing users from linking their Mastodon accounts on the platform.

What To Watch For

Musk asked Twitter users when he should “unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time,” the latest in a series of unscientific polls asking the public to weigh in on policy decisions. Musk posted two versions of the poll, one offering multiple options as to when suspensions could be lifted and another offering just two (“now” or “in 7 days”). Accounts engaging in doxxing typically receive “a temporary 7 day suspension,” he noted. Musk ended the broader poll after only a few hours, which he said was because it had “too many options.” It attracted more than 535,000 votes in that time. “Now” was the most popular, attracting 43% of the vote, narrowly trailed by those preferring a suspension of “longer” than seven days. The slimmed down version of the poll is still live. As of writing, more than 1.6 million people have voted and it is live for another 18 hours. “Now” leads with roughly 60% of the vote. It is not clear if or how Musk’s polls factor into his decision making and what numerical thresholds apply if they do. He has said “the people have spoken... Vox Populi, Vox Dei” after announcing policy changes he polled in the past, including lifting the suspension on Trump and announcing a “general amnesty,” suggesting popular opinion plays a role. In Latin, the phrase translates to: “the voice of the people, the voice of God.”

Contra

Musk on Friday pushed back against claims his private jet is trackable using public data alone. “My plane is actually not trackable without using non-public data,” he tweeted.

Forbes Valuation

$174.6 billion. That’s Musk’s estimated net worth, according to Forbes’ real-time tracker. He is currently the world’s second richest person behind French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault. Musk fell further behind Arnault on Thursday after selling nearly $3.6 billion in Tesla stock.

Chief Critic

Media outlets swiftly slammed Musk’s decision to ban the reporters. CNN’s communications team issued a statement condemning the “impulsive and unjustified suspension.” The outlet has asked Twitter for an explanation and will “reevaluate our relationship based on that response,” the statement said. Sally Buzbee, executive editor of the Washington Post, said the suspension of one of its journalists “undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech,” according to NBC. A spokesperson for the New York Times, told NBC the suspensions were questionable, unfortunate and without explanation.

Surprising Fact

“I love Barbara Streisand.” Musk is both a prolific user and subject of memes online, something he has embraced at Twitter’s helm. On Thursday night, the billionaire tweeted “I love Barbara Streisand.” The statement, though possibly referring to a genuine love of the famed singer, is most likely a reference to the online phenomenon bearing her name: the Streisand Effect. It is used to explain the unintended and backfiring consequence of trying to censor information online, stemming from the singer’s efforts to suppress photos of her Malibu house in 2003 and instead drawing global attention to the property. The media frenzy following Musk’s efforts to suppress accounts following his private jet’s movements are a clear example of the Streisand Effect at work.

Further Reading

Mastodon Isn’t A Replacement For Twitter—But It Has Rewards Of Its Own (Forbes)

Twitter Suspends Account Tracking Elon Musk's Private Jet (Forbes)

From Beyonce to The Oatmeal: the Streisand Effect at its most glorious (Wired)