On Thursday (December 15, US local time), the new Twitter owner Elon Musk hopped on a ‘Twitter Spaces’ discussion and informed that journalists would not be treated differently if found guilty of doxxing (revealing private information) about people.
“Well, I am sure that one who has been doxxed would agree – Drawing real-time information about somebody’s location is inappropriate and everyone…will not like that to be done to them,” Musk was heard as saying.
He further added, “There is not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists and regular people. Everyone is going to be treated the same. There are no special privileges for journalists.”
BREAKING: @ElonMusk just hopped on Spaces with a group of journalists and informed them the same doxxing rules apply to them and they aren’t special pic.twitter.com/SaYFWxZVpJ
— Birthday Purge Poso🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 16, 2022
“You doxx…You get suspended. End of story,” Musk emphasised. He also warned those who try to evade suspension by posting links, containing information about the real-time location of individuals.
The matter came to light when US-based journalist Jack Posobiec posted a 59-second-long audio clip of Musk’s remarks on Twitter. Jack wrote, “Elon Musk just hopped on Spaces with a group of journalists and informed them the same doxxing rules apply to them and they aren’t special.”
The Background of the Controversy
On Wednesday (December 14, US local time), Elon Musk informed that his 2-year-old son named ‘X’ who was travelling in Musk’s car was doxxed by a ‘crazy stalker’. The stalker was seen wearing a black hoodie and recording the incident on camera.
Anyone recognize this person or car? pic.twitter.com/2U0Eyx7iwl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
“Last night, a car carrying little X in LA was followed by a crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked the car from moving & climbed onto the hood,” Musk narrated the ordeal.
He had also posted an 11-second-long video of the alleged stalker and vowed to take action against a college student named Jack Sweeney, who used publicly available data to track the movement of the billionaire’s private jet to ‘raise awareness about carbon footprints.’
Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
Later, Elon Musk announced that the Twitter handles which post the real-time location of individuals and compromise their physical safety would be suspended.
In a tweet, the new Twitter owner said, “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.”
Same doxxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
While responding to a Twitter user, Musk clarified that journalists would not be treated as exceptions for endangering the lives of individuals by posting links to their live location. “Same doxxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else,” he reiterated.
