Thread by @ceo_plus_ch

Thread about the events around the recent #Twitter suspension of a few journalists. Please do read this and decide for yourself if it's really @ElonMusk who is the villain in this story.

1. Twitter already had a policy about doxxing private info before #ElonMusk took…

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@elonmusk …over: Sharing ""home address or physical location info [...] that are considered private"" already was a violation of this rule.
2. Despite this rule in place, Elon said on Nov 7 2022 that he wouldn't ban the account following his plane for the sake of free speech. This…

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@elonmusk …is remarkable because
a) Elon's flight data is not public, but the tracker account has engineered a way to aggregate various data to achieve accurate tracking and published it on his account (

https://twitter.com/TeslaLarry/status/1603090614056374273

),
b) private flight info qualifies as "physical…

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@elonmusk …location info" according to the pre-Elon Twitter rules,
c) publishing private real-time location info (= info about private locs apart from public appearances) can indeed pose a threat to the person concerned.
3. On Dec 15 2022, there was an incident with a stalker who…

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@elonmusk …threatened one of Elon's kids in a car. This understandibly made Elon rethink his generous handling of accounts that doxx private location info. Suddenly, the threatening potential of such info was real. He - again understandibly - decides that he needs to be more…

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@elonmusk …rigorous with the policy about doxxing private location info in order to protect himself and most of all his family.
4. Twitter revised its "Private information and media" policy and explicitly added a paragraph about real-time location…

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…information (help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-p…). This is not a new rule as sharing "physical location information" has already been a violation before. It's detailling the previous paragraph which has been existing for long.
5. On Dec 16 2022, Twitter suspended the flight…

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…tracker account that actually had violated the Twitter rules for a long time, but was tolerated by pre-Elon Twitter and Elon himself until that day.
6. Mastodon tweeted that the flight tracker account can be found on Mastodon - including its handle on Mastodon. This is…

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…obviously a circumvention and violation of the anti-doxxing policy, so Mastodon's Twitter account was suspended, too.
7. A #WashingtonPost journo (Drew Harwell) tweeted about the suspension of Mastodon's Twitter account and included screenshots that showed the Mastodon…

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…handle of the flight tracker account -> another violation of Twitter's anti-doxxing policy. So, Harwell's account got suspended, too.
8. Harwell's journo friends smelled a story with a lot of enragement & click potential and called for a mass-violation of Twitter's…

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…anti-doxxing policy: "EVERYBODY RT the screenshot of the tweet that got the account of Harrell suspended". Some did as ordered, and got their accounts suspended. The disturbing part here is that these journos did not
a) do the research to realize that the anti-doxxing…

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…of private location info policy has been existing for long,
b) do the research to realize that Elon's flight data is not public but was engineered by the flight tracker account,
c) Elon's legitimate fear of threats and need of privacy protection and family protection.…

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9. The journos' plan came to fruition: Many media ran a hit piece against Elon Musk. Mmh, so much enragement, engagement & clicks - the media love it. Without doing their job (actual RESEARCH!!!), they portrayed Elon as the villain and insinuated he wasn't serious about…

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…free speech, abusing his power, creating new rules for his own needs, threatening the free press etc. The facts are: Doxxing private location info has long been a violation against the Twitter rules, and pre-Elon Twitter & Elon should have been more rigorous about it…

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…long before.
10. In an attempt to respond to the arbitrariness & abuse accusations, Elon polls the public whether the accounts that violated Twitter's anti-doxxing policy should be reactivated. The majority voted Yes, and these accounts were unsuspended on Dec 17 2022.

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…
So, here's the question again: Who is/are the villain(s) in this story? Elon Musk or the media?

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The screenshot in the previous tweet shows the Twitter “Private information and media” policy as of April 2022.

In case you’re wondering why journalist Taylor Lorenz’ account was suspended permanently, here’s the reason:

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https://twitter.com/littlemissjacob/status/1603577712429318144