No one understands Elon Musk’s free speech. Upon his arrival on Twitter, the tycoon promised that the social network would become a public square. Later, he proclaimed himself “a free speech absolutist.” He later backed down to ensure that the platform would reduce hate tweets and now he has ended up blocking the accounts of journalists who followed him and the profile of Mastodon, the social network that shadows him.
From this Thursday, no one can see Mastodon’s account. If we look for the user @joinmastodon, we will find the following message: “Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Rules.” And there is no other explanation. Musk, far from what we are used to due to his Twitter hyperactivity, has not given any details in his profile either.
Measure
Twitter changes its rules on the fly
Musk’s platform has not justified the decision and only invites you to consult the internal rules of the microblogging social network
SAMUEL CORUM / AFP
The Mastodon account, the open source social network and direct competitor of Twitter, has been suspended this Thursday. Many of the links that redirect to this social network do not work either. Twitter marks them as “potentially harmful.” Musk’s platform has not justified the decision and only invites you to consult the internal rules of the microblogging social network.
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“Violence, harassment and other similar types of behavior discourage people from expressing themselves and ultimately diminish the value of the public conversation globally,” its help center can be read. The question is to discover the cardinal sin of Mastodon. Everything indicates that the social network tweeted a link to the aircraft tracking account in its own service and that has been its sentence.
That seems to be the argument that Musk used to close this and the @elonjet account, which followed the movements of the tycoon’s plane and was created by Jack Sweeney. As of this Wednesday, according to the tycoon, Twitter prohibits sharing “the location of people in real time.”
Confusion continues to reign on Twitter. Musk said in a tweet in November that his commitment to free expression extended “including to not banning the account that follows my plane, even if it poses a direct risk to personal safety.” And now he has ended up suspending it. “Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts that break Twitter rules”, reads in the profile created by Sweeney, who has confirmed his closure through a tweet on his personal account, in which, in addition to Mastodon, he offers alternatives on other platforms.
According to a screenshot shared by Sweeney, the company informed him that he had broken their rules and that he could only read content, but not send or forward messages. Twitter also gives you the opportunity to file a complaint against the measure. Before his block, @elonjet had half a million followers.
In the last hours, there has been a cascade of blocks on Twitter. The accounts of several journalists who cover Elon Musk were suspended and their publications deleted, according to several US media. Journalists work for outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, or Voice of America.
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Some of them, like The New York Times technology reporter Ryan Mac, had also published stories recently about the suspension of another account: the one that used publicly available flight data to track the mogul’s private jet.
Musk himself had previously promised that he would not suspend that account for its “commitment to free expression”, but this Wednesday Twitter changed its rules and prohibited sharing information about “the location of people in real time”.
