Reporters Without Borders calls on Twitter to restore suspended journalists’ accounts

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asked this Friday that Twitter restore the accounts of journalists suspended the day before, considering that “the arbitrariness of the large platforms” constitutes a “greater danger to democracy.”

“We must put an end to the arbitrariness of the platforms and regain democratic control of them before they totally submit democracies to their whims and it is too late,” said Christophe Deloire, general secretary of RSF, an NGO from defense of press freedom founded in France in 1985.

A dozen American journalists were suspended from the social network Twitter, acquired in October by the billionaire Elon Musk.

The group did not explain why they had been suspended or for how long.

Some journalists had tweeted about Twitter’s decision to suspend the @ElonJet account, which automatically reported on Musk’s private jet travel.

“Accounts involved in doxing receive a 7-day suspension,” Musk tweeted Thursday night, noting that these rules apply “to journalists as well as anyone else.”

The term “doxing” means publicly disclosing personal information about an individual on the Internet without their consent.

The censorship of journalists and the construction of new rules to satisfy the decisions of the boss (Elon Musk) are not the hallmarks of a healthy news space,” RSF noted.