'Very Disturbed': UN On Twitter's Arbitary Suspension Of Journalists

UNITED Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the suspension of journalists from Twitter by Elon Musk is "very disturbing".

"We are very disturbed by the arbitrary suspension of accounts of journalists that we saw on Twitter," Stephane Dujarric said during a press briefing.

Dujarric said that the platform that claims to be a place for free speech, should not silence the voices of the media. According to the spokesperson, this move sets a risky precedent at a time when journalists around the globe are dealing with censorship, physical threats, and even worse.

This came after Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of many journalists with the site showing "account suspended" notices for them.

While responding to the question if the UN will consider its decision on involvement in Twitter, the UN spokesperson said, "We are monitoring day-by-day developments. Twitter by its very dominance of the market, remains an extremely important platform for us to share factual information."

"We have also seen a very concerning rise on the platform of hate speech, disinformation on climate and other topics. So we are just following the situation closely," he added.

Reportedly, Elon Musk-led micro-blogging website has suspended nearly half a dozen prominent journalists, who have been covering the social media site and its owner Elon Musk, citing they had violated rules against "doxxing."

The list of suspended accounts includes those of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, political journalist Keith Olbermann, Aaron Rupar, and Tony Webster, both independent journalists, the New York Times reported.

The social media platform displayed "account suspended" notices on the accounts of these journalists.

After the Tesla owner took over Twitter, the site has been going through massive changes. The suspension is also followed by a policy update made by Twitter on Thursday (local time) prohibiting the sharing of "live location information, including information shared on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes."

A Twitter user Mike Solana, in his tweet pointed out that the suspended accounts had posted links to jet trackers on other websites. Responding to Solana, Musk said "Same doxxing rules apply to "journalists" as to everyone else."

Further in his response to Solana's tweet, Musk wrote, "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not."

"They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service," Musk tweeted.

(With inputs from ANI)