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‘You first, lol’: AOC tries to slam Musk over banned journos, but ends up bonding instead

December 16, 2022 | | Print Article

Twitter CEO Elon Musk received a twisted kind of sympathy from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after he suspended at least nine prominent journalists’ accounts on Twitter for seven days because they were essentially posting “assassination coordinates” of his location.

(Video Credit: KTLA 5)

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Thursday night that she sympathized with Musk because his safety was threatened by being doxed by the journalists, but in turn, labeled his ban on them as “proto-fascism.”

The Chief Twit tweeted, “They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service.”

The Squad member responded, “You’re a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one. I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you. Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone.”

She followed that left-handed semi-show of sympathy with another tweet essentially making it all about her while slamming conservatives, “As someone who has been subject to real + dangerous plots, I do get it. I didn’t have security and have experienced many scary incidents. In fact, many of the right-wing outlets you now elevate published photos of my home, car, etc. At a certain point you gotta disconnect.”

Musk responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets succinctly, “You first lol.”

The billionaire suspended at least nine journalists whom he claimed had tweeted links to an account that tracks his private jet, violating Twitter policies. Those journalists included Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steven Herman of VOA, as well as Aaron Rupar, Tony Webster, and Keith Olbermann.

“Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7 day suspension,” he went on to comment concerning the journalist suspensions.

“Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else,” Musk pointed out.

He defended himself, stating, “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”

CNN threatened to leave the social media platform again, this time permanently after asking Twitter to explain and then stating it would “reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”

A number of the journalists appear to have been suspended for tweeting links to the social media platform Mastadon where @ElonJet tracked Musk’s private jet with public information after it was banned from Twitter. The account is owned by Jack Sweeney who is facing legal action by Musk over the violation of his privacy and endangering himself and his family.

Musk held a call with a group of journalists to explain his doxing policy to them, according to the Daily Mail.

“As I’m sure everyone who’s been doxxed would agree, showing real-time information about somebody’s location is inappropriate, and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them, and there’s not gonna be any distinction in future between journalists – so-called journalists – and regular people,” he informed them on the call.

“Everyone’s gonna be treated the same. You’re not special cause you’re a journalist. you’re a citizen. So, no special treatment. You dox, you get suspended, end of story. And no ban-evasion, or trying to be clever about, like ‘Oh I posted a link to the real-time information,’ is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning, that is no different from actually showing real-time information,” Musk explained.

Musk is now running a poll on whether the journalists should be suspended for seven days, reinstated now, tomorrow, or booted for even longer.

“If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!” he tweeted, pointing out the obvious.

 

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