Elon Musk Hops on Voice Chat, Tells Group of Journalists Last Thing They Want to Hear
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
If you really want to annoy someone who thinks they’re special, tell them they’re not special and then put action to those words.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk found that out in the backlash to his announcing to a group of journalists during a Twitter Spaces call on Dec. 16 that they were subject to the same rules against doxing as any other Twitter user.
“As I’m sure anyone who has been doxed would agree, you know, showing real-time information about someone’s location is inappropriate and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them,” Musk said.
“And so there is not going to be any distinction in the future between them journalists, so-called journalists, and regular people. Everyone’s going to be treated the same,” he explained. “You’re not special because you’re a journalist. You’re just a Twitter — you’re a citizen. So no special treatment. You dox, you get suspended. End of story.”
And those who may have thought that there’d be an easy way around the rule had another think coming, too.
“And ban evasion, or trying to be clever about it, like ‘oh, I posted a link to the real-time information’ is obviously — that is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning,” Musk said. “That is — there’s no difference from actually showing real-time information.”
Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events, posted the audio clip on Twitter.
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
— Pillow Purge Poso🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 16, 2022
And he was pretty obviously in favor of Musk’s position on the topic.
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
— Pillow Purge Poso🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 16, 2022
Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee — one of the most well-known accounts restored to Twitter after Musk’s takeover — also seemed to agree.
You’re not wrong.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) December 16, 2022
The Spaces event was apparently scheduled to explain the rules specifically to journalists after this tweet from Musk.
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.
Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Musk, who has recently claimed that he lives under a constant, credible threat of assassination attempts because of the changes he’s brought to the social media giant, experienced what appeared to be a stalking event in his own family Dec. 14.
Musk used the social media platform to ask his followers for help identifying a person who was allegedly stalking a car carrying his young son, X Æ A-Xii, or as Musk calls him for short, “X.”
The development came in the wake of his tweet regarding users posting “real time location info.” According to the New York Post, the tweet referenced University of Central Florida freshman Jack Sweeney, who runs a website that tracks Musk’s private jet movements.
Less than an hour later, Musk followed that tweet with one announcing that he believed a “crazy stalker” had attempted to stop a car carrying X, saying that he intended legal action against the person running the live tracking website and implying that it was the cause of the stalking incident.
“Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood. Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family,” Musk wrote.
Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.
Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Musk still has his work cut out for him at Twitter, but to paraphrase another social media user: I don’t know where he gets the energy, but Musk sure is fun to watch.
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