The accounts of roughly half a dozen prominent journalists were suspended on Thursday.
Ryan Mac of The New York Times and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post were among the people whose accounts were suspended. It was not clear what the suspensions had in common; each user had a message on their account that said it had been suspended.
More than 25 accounts that tracked the planes of government agencies, billionaires and high-profile individuals, including that of Mr. Musk, were suspended on Thursday. Jack Sweeney, a 20-year-old college student and flight tracking enthusiast, was the operator of many of the accounts.
Mr. Musk said last month that he would allow the account that tracked his private plane to stay on the social network. He said that his commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following his plane.
He changed his mind this week after he claimed his son's car was accosted by a stalker. Mr. Musk said that any account that posted real-time location info of anyone would be suspended. Links to real-time location information are posted.
The accounts that tracked the private planes had been written about by some of the journalists who had their accounts suspended. The articles that have been written have been critical of Mr. Musk. They had a lot of followers on the platform.
Mr. Musk didn't reply to a request for comment or reply to an email requesting comment. Mr. Musk said that the rules on doxxing applied to journalists as well as everyone else. He didn't say anything.
A spokesman for The Times said that the suspension of the accounts of a number of prominent journalists is questionable and unfortunate. Ryan and The Times didn't receive an explanation about why this happened. We hope that all of the journalists' accounts are back up and running.
There was no response from a representative for The Post. The CNN spokeswoman said that the suspensions were concerning but not surprising and that they should be of concern to everyone who uses the social networking site. After his account was suspended, Mr. O' Sullivan spoke on CNN.
Mr.Webster said in an email that he was disappointed to see that his account had been suspended. He said that he had commented on the account that tracked Mr. Musk's plane.
Mr. Binder said that he had been critical of Mr. Musk but did not break any of the policies.
Mr. Sweeney switched to Mastodon after he was suspended from the micro-messaging service. Mastodon's account was suspended on Thursday after they promoted Mr. Sweeney's new account. The accounts of the journalists who shared the Mastodon suspension were suspended.
Mr. Musk said that his takeover would allow more people to participate in the public discussion and expand free speech on the platform. He allowed banned users to return in recent weeks, including former President Donald Trump.
In October, Mr. Musk said he would set up a council to advise him on policy matters before changing the company's policies. The council didn't come to fruition. The trust and safety advisory group was dissolved this week.
In April, when he announced his intent to buy the company, Mr. Musk said that he hoped his worst critics remained on the social networking site.
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