Twitter Reinstates Suspended Accounts of Several Journalists

Elon Musk said that Twitter was reinstating the accounts of several journalists whose accounts were suspended after he had accused them of violating the social media platform’s rules on personal privacy. Musk said he was restoring most of the accounts, which had been deactivated on Dec 15, after a majority of respondents in his informal Twitter survey voted that the suspensions should be lifted immediately. But for at least some of the reporters, including Drew Harwell of The Washington Post and Ryan Mac of The New York Times, the restoration of their accounts appeared to be contingent on them deleting posts that Twitter had flagged as “violating our rules against posting private information.” In Harwell’s case, he was told to delete a Twitter post reporting on the suspension of Mastodon, one of Twitter’s competitors. If he attempted to appeal the decision, the message said, his account would remain locked while Twitter reviewed his appeal.