New York, Dec 16: Twitter has abruptly suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists who cover the social media platform and Elon Musk, who acquired the company in October.
The accounts of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America, and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann as well as Tony Webster had all been suspended as of Thursday evening, CNN reported.
The journalists, however, found a backdoor way onto the platform through the website's audio function, and hours later of suspension faced off with Musk in a Twitter Space audio discussion before an audience of more than 30,000 listeners.
"You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it," Musk said to one of the suspended journalists, explaining his latest policy to the group before he left minutes after having joined the discussion.
Musk was referring to Twitter's latest rule change about accounts that track private jets, including one owned by Musk himself, which was put in place on Wednesday.
The Twitter account for Mastodon, a platform billed as a Twitter alternative, was also suspended early on Thursday evening.
Twitter accounts operated by NBC News journalists were unable to tweet any links to Mastodon pages. Mastodon was, however, trending on Twitter.
According to NBC News, Musk said the suspensions stemmed from the platform's new rules banning private jet trackers, responding to a tweet from Mike Solana, a vice president of the venture capital firm Founders Fund, who noted that the suspended accounts had posted links to jet trackers on other websites.
"Criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not," he said in another tweet.
Doxxing refers to the practice of sharing someone's home address or other personal information online.
Musk tweeted that the accounts banned on Thursday posted "my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service".
Musk later added that the suspensions would last seven days.
In early November, shortly after having taken control of Twitter, Musk tweeted that he would not ban the account that tracked his jet.
Rupar wrote on Substack that his account was permanently suspended but that he had no other information.
"I haven't heard anything from Twitter at all," he wrote, saying that he had tweeted a link on Wednesday to a Facebook page that tracked Musk's jet.
Binder, a tech reporter at Mashable, said he was suspended after he tweeted a screenshot from another suspended reporter, CNN's O'Sullivan, of a Los Angeles Police Department statement.
"I've been on it since 2008. I never got so much as a slap on the wrist, because I always follow the rules," Binder said. "It's not hard to do when you know what the rules are."
Binder said his account notified him that he is permanently suspended.
"This is the very stuff that he's criticised the previous Twitter of doing," Binder said of Musk.
Binder found a loophole in Twitter's suspension, joining an audio discussion on Twitter's Spaces feature with other journalists on Thursday night.
"I'm breaking the law in ways that have never been broken before," Binder joked.
Jack Sweeney, a 20-year-old Florida college student who created the Twitter account that tracked Musk's jet, was also able to join the discussion, briefly joined by Musk.
The billionaire had earlier put up a poll with a variety of options, asking whether or when he should reinstate the journalists' accounts, but later deleted the poll and started a fresh one with fewer options as a plurality of respondents voted to restore the accounts immediately.
O'Sullivan said on Thursday that all those journalists who were suspended with him were people who covered Musk.
"As we saw with the jet tracker last night, Musk seems to be just stamping out accounts that he doesn't like," O'Sullivan said on CNN.
A spokesperson for the network said the suspensions were "impulsive and unjustified" but not surprising.
"Twitter's increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter," CNN said in a statement, adding that the network had asked Twitter for an "explanation" and that it would reevaluate its relationship with the platform based on that response.
Ryan Mac, a New York Times tech reporter, wrote on a new Twitter account that he was given "no warning" before his account was suspended and that he had received no communication from the company about the reason his account was "permanently suspended".
A spokesperson for The New York Times, who called the suspensions questionable and unfortunate, said no explanation was provided to Mac or the newspaper about the ban.
Meanwhile, the European Union has threatened Musk with sanctions after several journalists covering the company had their accounts abruptly suspended.
EU commissioner Vera Jourova warned that the EU's Digital Services Act requires the respect of media freedom.
"Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon," she tweeted.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, if individual bans were confirmed as retaliation for journalists' work, it would be a "serious violation of journalists' right to report the news without fear of reprisal".
Several other organisations condemned Twitter's decision, with the head of the American Civil Liberties Union saying: "It's impossible to square Twitter's free speech aspirations with the purging of critical journalists' accounts."
The president of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) said in a statement it was "concerned" about the suspensions, and that the move "affects all journalists."
Twitter, which recently dissolved the majority of its press department, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But Twitter's head of trust and safety told the Verge: "Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk."
Journalists who cover Elon Musk have been suspended on Twitter tonight: @Donie O'Sullivan from CNN, Aaron Rupar and the Washington Post's @drewharwell.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) December 16, 2022
Rupar tells me he has "no idea" why it happened.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
London, Aug 5 (PTI): An Indian-origin taxi driver based in Ireland for over 23 years has become the latest to be targeted in an unprovoked attack in the capital Dublin, with local police (Gardai) launching an investigation into the violent assault.
Lakhvir Singh, in his 40s, told local media that he picked up two young men in their 20s on Friday night and dropped them at Poppintree, in the Ballymun suburb of Dublin.
Upon arriving at the destination, the men are said to have opened the vehicle door and struck him twice on the head with a bottle. As the suspects fled, they reportedly shouted: "Go back to your own country".
"In 10 years I've never seen anything like this happen," Singh told ‘Dublin Live’.
"I'm really scared now and I'm off the road at the moment. It will be very hard to go back. My children are really scared," he said.
A Dublin police spokesperson said Singh was taken to the city's Beaumont Hospital with injuries determined as not life-threatening.
"Gardaí are investigating an assault reported to have occurred in Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin 11 at approximately 11:45 pm on Friday, 1st August 2025. A man, aged in his 40s, was brought to Beaumont Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injury. Investigations are ongoing," the spokesperson said.
The incident followed an Indian Embassy advisory, also issued on Friday, expressing safety concerns following recent attacks in and around the capital Dublin and urging Indian citizens to take safety precautions.
"There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently,” states the advisory.
“The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned in Ireland in this regard. At the same time, all Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially at odd hours," the statement reads, adding emergency embassy contact details as 0899423734 and cons.dublin@mea.gov.in.
It came in the wake of a brutal attack on a 40-year-old Indian man at Parkhill Road in the Tallaght suburb of Dublin on July 19, described as “mindless, racist violence” by locals.
The Gardai had opened an investigation into the case and Indian Ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra was among those who took to social media to express shock over the attack.
“Regarding the recent incident of physical attack on an Indian national that happened in Tallaght, Dublin, the embassy is in touch with the victim and his family. All the requisite assistance is being offered. The embassy is also in touch with the relevant Irish authorities in this regard,” the embassy said in a social media post days after the incident.
A Stand Against Racism protest was also held by the local community in condemnation of what was described as a "vicious racist attack" and to express solidarity with migrants.
Last week, Dr Santosh Yadav took to LinkedIn to post details of a “brutal, unprovoked racist attack”.
The entrepreneur and AI expert stressed that it was not an isolated incident and called for “concrete measures” from the governments of Ireland and India to ensure Indians feel safe to walk the streets of Dublin.
His post revealed that a group of six teenagers attacked him from behind as he walked to his apartment in Dublin.
“This is not an isolated incident. Racist attacks on Indian men and other minorities are surging across Dublin — on buses, in housing estates, and on public streets. Yet, the government is silent. There is no action being taken against these perpetrators. They run free and are emboldened to attack again,” reads Yadav's post.
Fine Gael party Councillor for Tallaght South, Baby Pereppadan, was among those who expressed concern following last month’s attack.
“People need to understand that many Indian people moving to Ireland are here on work permits, to study and work in the healthcare sector or in IT and so on, providing critical skills,” he said.
Another violent anti-Indian attack in Ireland
— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) August 5, 2025
Taxi driver Lakhvir Singh was attacked with glass bottles while doing his job pic.twitter.com/mtkwhLWISx