You are currently viewing Elon Musk Faces Backlash And Possible EU Sanction Over Suspension Of Journalists

Elon Musk Faces Backlash And Possible EU Sanction Over Suspension Of Journalists

Twitter suspended several journalists on Thursday because they were doxxing the company’s new CEO, Elon Musk. According to his explanation, they had violated what appear to be a new policy on the platform.

He added that their actions may have contributed to a stalker following a car carrying his son, X, and climbing onto its hood.

However, from what we could surmise, the penalised journalists had only covered the story of Musk suspending the @ElonJet account and the fallout, which led to him also suspending the account of Mastodon, a breakout social media service that many are touting as an alternative to the now-shaky Twitter.

Also read:
How To Recover Hacked Instagram Account With This New Tool
See Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 And More Coming To PS5 In Fall 2023
Five Times Elon Musk Sold His Tesla Shares In 2022 Because Of Twitter.

It is not exactly clear how these journalists provided Musk’s real-time location info, in violation of the Twitter doxxing policy.

In response to his action, European Commission VP Vera Jourova said that the ‘arbitrary suspension’ of journalists was worrying. Jourova mentioned that this went against the EU’s Digital Services Act which requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights, he then added that sanctions could follow.

For now, it is not clear exactly how Twitter could pay for its actions but CNBC says that it could face a fine of up to 6% of their global annual revenues.

Elon Musk poll on Twitter suspension of journalists over doxxing
Elon Musk poll on journalists accounts suspended over doxxing.

Asides from the EU’s condemnation, Elon Musk is also losing popularity on Twitter, something that is important to him. He had conducted two different polls asking his followers to vote on how long the suspended journalists’ accounts were to stay down for and both times, majority voted that the accounts should be restored immediately.

For your daily dose of tech, lifestyle, and trending content, make sure to follow Plat4om on Twitter @Plat4omLive, on Instagram @Plat4om, on LinkedIn at Plat4om, and on Facebook at Plat4om. You can also email us at info@techtalkwithtdafrica.com and join our channel on Telegram at Plat4om. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Onwuasoanya Obinna

A reader of books and stringer of words. Passionate about Science and Tech. When not writing or reading he is surfing the web and Tweeting.