They included reporters Keith Olbermann, Steven L. Herman, and Donie O'Sullivan, as well as journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept.

[14][16] EU officials said the actions may have violated the Digital Services Act, which could result in sanctions or even a ban of Twitter in Europe.

[18] My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk Business magnate Elon Musk purchased the social media company Twitter for $44 billion on October 27, 2022, following a lengthy process that began when Musk made the initial purchase offer on April 14, 2022, then later rescinded the deal after it was accepted.

[3] Specifically, he criticized the Internet bot account @ElonJet, which used publicly-available flight data to track trips taken by Musk's private plane.

[11][28] In November 2022, Musk publicly stated that he would not ban @ElonJet, despite claiming the account "is a direct personal safety risk", because of his "commitment to free speech".

[2][9][10] In the same tweet, Musk said he would be taking legal action against Sweeney and "organizations who supported harm to my family" as a result of the alleged altercation.

[17] The account of Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) was suspended on December 17 for "prior doxxing action", but was quickly restored.

[3][9] Musk said the suspended accounts posted his "exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service".

"[3][5] Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, told Reuters that the organization manually reviewed "any and all accounts" in violation of the policy, which included posting links to @ElonJet.

"[14] A few hours after the suspensions, Musk defended the action during a discussion on Twitter Spaces, a social audio feature of the platform, which was hosted by BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos and had more than 30,000 listeners.

[3] The Twitter Spaces feature remained offline for several hours, although several users, including the conversation's host, found themselves suspended from the service once it became available again.

[23] The second poll asked users whether he should "unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time", and provided only two options "Now" or "In 7 days".

Linette Lopez, who had previously published investigations into Tesla, Inc., where Musk also worked as CEO, remained suspended on Twitter and had not heard anything from the platform about possible reinstatement.

[17][8] Steven L. Herman said his account is now visible to others, but he cannot use it because he won't delete three tweets that Twitter claimed were sharing Musk's location.

[48] The journalists were not initially told if their accounts had been permanently or temporarily suspended, and were not informed why they had been blocked or what specific rule was violated.

[24] Lee also wrote: "While my reporting may not have provided the direct impetus for my suspension, it's clear Musk was taking aim specifically at journalists who have covered him critically.

"[47] Linette Lopez said of her suspension: "Its funny that Elon suddenly has a problem with doxxing and harassing people because he [also] has a history of doing that ..."[15] Drew Harwell said he did not share information about Musk's private jet or personal location, but simply posted a link to the @ElonJet account in his stories.

[14][4] In a direct conversation with Musk on Twitter Spaces, Harwell said: "We have to acknowledge you are using the same exact link-blocking technique that you have criticized as part of the Hunter Biden–New York Post story in 2020.

[1] Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said the suspensions occurred "without warning, process, or explanation" and that they "directly undermined Elon Musk's claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech".

[47] Commentators have been critical of the suspensions, including media outlets and international representatives,[2][14] officials from several countries, the United Nations and European Union.

[14] Stephane Dujarric, another UN spokesperson, said they were reconsidering their involvement with Twitter, and that the suspensions set "a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even worse".

[47] U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote public tweets directly to Musk, saying the suspensions were irresponsible actions, and that they only increase the scrutiny around him, adding that he should "lay off the proto-fascism.

"[53] Věra Jourová, the Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, said on December 16 that "news about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying.

"[4] European Commission officials said Musk's actions may have violated the Digital Services Act, which could result in sanctions or even a ban on the social media platform across all of Europe.

[4][17] Johannes Bahrke, of the European Commission, said it was encouraging that some journalists were reinstated, but was concerned about Musk using informal Twitter polls to make such decisions rather than through a clearly-defined framework.

[14] The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing said Twitter's actions "violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow the unfiltered distribution of information that is already in the public square".

[47][54][55] On December 16, Wired reporter Amanda Hoover quoted John Davisson, a senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, saying "Musk is responding to events that affect him personally to reshape that policy and place new limits on what could be disseminated through the platform..."[56] Hoover concluded that "This new approach will have a lasting impact on Twitter.

"[56] The Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection and advocacy organization, filed a complaint to the United States Congress on December 22, saying Musk "abused his authority by acting arbitrarily and capriciously" in suspending the journalists.

David Seide, senior counsel with the organization, called the actions "disturbing" and urged Congress to "review this mistreatment" and investigate further.