Without prior notice or justification, Twitter suspended a number of well-known journalists on Thursday night.
The incident occurred after the business decided to shut down Mastodon\’s Twitter account, an open source social media competitor that has gained popularity since Elon Musk became the organization\’s CEO. After linking to the Mastodon page of @ElonJet, a student-made bot that tracks the whereabouts of Musk\’s private jet, Twitter initiated action against Mastodon.
At least a few of the accounts that were suspended have posted screenshots and observations regarding the suspension of Mastodon. Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell tweeted about Mastodon being removed from the platform just before he was suspended.
Additionally suspended on Thursday night were writer Aaron Rupar, The New York Times\’ Ryan Mac, CNN\’s Donie O\’Sullivan, Mashable\’s Matt Binder, and former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann. Numerous journalists have chronicled Musk\’s conquest of Twitter in recent months on a regular basis.
Rupar commented on his suspension on Substack, pointing out that despite not knowing the reason for its deactivation, he had shared a link to the ElonJet Facebook page while reporting on the issue. Mac reposted the statement from Twitter using a different account, noting that there was no prior notification before the permanent ban.