Former Twin Cities journalists among Twitter suspensions

Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists, including two with Minnesota ties, who cover the social media platform.

The accounts of reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other journalists went dark on Thursday without explanation by the company for the decision to shut down the reporters' profiles and past tweets.

Among those suspended were Tony Webster and Aaron Rupar, who have worked for Twin Cities media.

Rupar previously worked in the Twin Cities for City Pages, Minnesota Premier Publications and Fox 9. He also served as digital media coordinator for the Minnesota House DFL Caucus from 2015 to 2016.

Rupar is currently an independent journalist who publishes the Public Notice politics newsletter on Substack. The pandemic brought him back to living in Minnesota after a few years in Washington D.C.

Webster established a reputation for his expertise for tracking public documents and freedom of information requests. He has worked for such outlets as Minnesota Public Radio and the Minnesota Reformer. He is currently studying political science at the University of Wyoming.

Webster said he discovered his account was "permanently suspended" on Thursday evening. He said he received no notification prior to his account being pulled and had heard nothing from Twitter on Friday, including which rule he allegedly broke.

Twitter offers a link to appeal the decision, but Webster said the link is broken.

Webster had previously tweeted a screenshot that showed an error message when trying to call up an account that tracked the travels of Elon Musk's private jet. Twitter had suspended the @ElonJet account, operated by a Florida college student, on Wednesday. Webster said that he thinks that's why his own account was suspended.

The suspension of journalists' accounts, Webster said, is in line with Musk's chaotic tenure as Twitter's new owner.

"It's like both not a surprise and also shocking at the same time," Webster told the Star Tribune. "Rules are being made up as he goes along."

Webster said his Twitter account had about 33,000 followers. He said he has established a new account on Mastodon, an alternative social media platform. Webster said that overnight his Mastodon account drew many new followers.

On Thursday Rupar started getting notes from friends through Instagram and email alerting him that his account had been suspended. Rupar said that he had Tweeted out a link to ElonJet's Facebook page.

Rupar used his network to reach someone at Twitter who confirmed that the jet-related tweet was the issue. Rupar was told that the suspension is temporary.

Rupar, who had about 800,000 followers on Twitter, was busy Friday with media interviews including talking to the BBC and Al Jazeera. He was booked for appearances Friday night on CNN and MSNBC.

"I'm trying to take it with a grain of salt," said Rupar. "I am confident at this point that I will be reinstated before too long."

The criticism from media companies was swift.

The Washington Post's executive editor, Sally Buzbee, called for technology reporter Drew Harwell's Twitter account to be reinstated immediately. The suspension "directly undermines Elon Musk's claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech," Buzbee wrote. "Harwell was banished without warning, process or explanation, following the publication of his accurate reporting about Musk."

CNN said in a statement, "Twitter's increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter."

Twitter did not give a reason for the suspensions, but it comes as owner Musk makes major changes to the platform, including reinstating high-profile accounts that Twitter had previously said engaged in harmful misinformation and hateful conduct.

Musk took to Twitter on Thursday night to accuse journalists of doxxing — a term that refers to sharing private information online about someone's identity, address or other personal details. He described it as "basically assassination coordinates." He provided no evidence for that claim.

He reinforced his stance during a Twitter Spaces conference chat, saying, "You doxx, you get suspended, end of story."

But he abruptly left the conversation, and a short time later, Twitter Spaces went offline.

He later tweeted that "We're fixing a Legacy Bug" and said the service should be up and running again Friday.