Musk defends his decision after suspending accounts of prominent journalists

San Francisco, Dec 16

Twitter boss Elon Musk has defended his decision after suspending accounts on the micro-blogging platform of more than half a dozen journalists from outlets including CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post following their reporting on an account related to him.

In defence of the decision to suspend reporters, Musk said: "Everyone's going to be treated the same. They're not special just because you're a journalist", reports BuzzFeed.News.

"Showing real-time information about somebody's location is inappropriate and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done for them," he added.

Musk suspended the accounts of journalists like Donie O'Sullivan from CNN and Drew Harwell from The Washington Post as they covered the "exact real-time location" of Musk.

He had earlier said that any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation.

Musk claimed that reporting relating to @ElonJet was doxxing (publishing private and personal information, such as addresses or phone numbers) because it could provide live information about him and his family, said the report.

Doxxing (also spelled doxing) is the act of revealing someone's personal information online. It is a form of online harassment that means publicly exposing someone's real name, address, job, or other identifying data.

Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old college student and aviation enthusiast, created the @ElonJet account, which provided regular updates on flights of Musk by using publicly available data.

"You're just a Twitter citizen. So no special treatment. You dox, you get suspended, end of story," Musk said.

Musk on Friday announced that Twitter accounts engaged in doxxing will receive a temporary seven-day suspension.

"7 day suspension for doxxing. Some time away from Twitter is good for the soul," he chuckled, after organising a poll on the subject on his Twitter handle.

--IANS