Elon Musk Suspends Taylor Lorenz’s Twitter Account After She Asks If He Wants to Comment for a Story
Twitter suspended the account of Taylor Lorenz on Saturday night after the Washington Post reporter asked CEO Elon Musk if he wanted to comment on a potential story.
In her tweet addressed to Musk, Lorenz stated she and fellow Post reporter Drew Harwell emailed him for comment. Apparently they received no response, hence the tweet addressed to him.
Lorenz’s suspension came two days after Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists covering Musk – including Harwell – because, Musk claimed, they shared his exact “real-time location” on their Twitter accounts. However, none of the suspended accounts had actually done that.
Harwell was one of several journalists Twitter suspended on Thursday, as Musk alleged he’d been “doxxed” by the accounts. When Harwell challenged Musk’s claim in a Twitter Spaces the CEO joined on Thursday shortly after the suspensions, Musk abruptly left.
Most of the accounts in question have been reinstated after Musk conducted a poll on Twitter where the majority of voters said the accounts should be unsuspended “Now.”
However, the account of journalist Linette Lopez, who has proved in-depth and sometimes unflattering reporting about Musk’s Tesla Motors over the years, remains suspended.
As for Lorenz, she is a bugbear for conservatives in large part because she revealed the name of the owner of the highly influential Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, which mocks left-leaning figures on the TikTok app.
Since buying Twitter, Musk has endeared himself to right-wing users by casting himself as a “free speech” crusader who believes the company was overly censorious of conservative accounts before he bought it.
On Saturday night, Lorenz tweeted at Musk, noting she and Harwell emailed him for comment, presumably about a potential story they’re working on:
Hi Elon, @drewhartwell and I sent you a couple emails about this. We’ve learned some information that we’d like to share and discuss with you. We’re taking this very seriously and want to ensure this is pursued in the right way. Thanks.
Shortly after Lorenz sent the tweet, Twitter suspended her account, even though she did not appear to violate Twitter’s terms of service by asking its CEO if he wanted to exercise his free speech in this context.
In a statement to NBC News, Lorenz decried Musk’s suspensions.
“Cancel culture has gone too far,” she said. “I think the way that musk is arbitrarily banning anyone who he personally doesn’t like has dangerous consequences for free speech.”
After several users appealed to Musk about the suspension, he replied to one on Sunday morning to say it will “be lifted shortly.”
“Temp suspension due to prior doxxing action by this account,” he tweeted. “Will be lifted shortly.”
Musk did not cite any specific tweet or tweets from Lorenz that supposedly doxxed him.
