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Twitter boss Musk: What is still allowed on the platform and what is not?
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DADO RUVIC / REUTERS
The Federal Foreign Office has been critical of the blocking of several journalist accounts on Twitter.
"Freedom of the press must not be switched on and off at will," it said on Friday directly on the platform.
"As of today, the journalists below can no longer follow, comment and criticize us," the ministry wrote, linking screenshots of several of the blocked accounts.
"We have a problem with that, @Twitter."
Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner wrote a “personal note” on Twitter and wrote: “The arbitrary blocking of journalist accounts on Twitter is unacceptable.
If this development continues, I will leave this platform.« Büchner referred to his account with Twitter competitor Mastodon and added that the federal government already has an account there.
Numerous links to Mastodon are currently blocked on Twitter because they are considered "malicious software".
The exact background and the duration of this measure are still unclear.
The message from the Federal Foreign Office relates to the company's decision to freeze the accounts of several well-known journalists who had covered the US company and its new boss Elon Musk (read more here ).
In the course of the lockdown, Elon Musk briefly referred to a new anti-doxing guideline that he and his team introduced with pen strokes this week.
The journalists affected work for well-known media such as CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
It's about flight details
The alleged reason for the introduction and rapid implementation of the new policy was a Twitter bot called @ElonJet, which automatically tracked the take-offs and landings of Elon Musk's private jet.
Musk had been annoyed about the account for a long time, and this week @ElonJet has now been blocked.
"Any account that posts someone's real-time location data will be suspended as it is a physical security breach," Musk said.
"This includes posting links to websites with real-time location information." Okay is just "posting places someone has traveled to, with a slight delay."
In connection with the announcement, Musk reported that a stalker had been chasing a car that contained a daughter named X Æ A-12.
Musk also said he now wants to take legal action against the operator of @Elonjet, Jack Sweeney.
Jack Sweeney is a 20-year-old college student.
Who can post what?
Doxing is a tactic known from the gamer and YouTuber scene, among others, which involves embarrassing or intimidating others by publishing private, usually non-public information on the Internet.
Meanwhile, the @ElonJet account was based on publicly available data.
The banned journalists who reported on @ElonJet after and in the face of its suspension apparently did so in part with links to Jack Sweeney's accounts on other services.
Elon Musk put it more dramatically. He accused the banned journalist of posting his "accurate real-time location, basically the coordinates for an assassination, which (obviously) is a direct violation of Twitter's terms of service."
Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and security, told The Verge that the new policy now prohibits the sharing of live location information about people, including linking to third-party sites.
Twitter's website states that the rule applies regardless of whether that location information is publicly available.
The Federal Foreign Office was not alone in its public criticism of Twitter on Friday morning.
Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the EU Commission, also took a position and wrote that the news about the arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter was "worrying".
The EU's Digital Services Act requires "respect for media freedom and fundamental rights," and the whole thing is reinforced by the Media Freedom Act.
“Elon Musk should be aware of that.
There are red lines.
And sanctions, soon.«
mbo/AFP
