Elon Musk suspended The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz from Twitter after she asked him to comment on a story

Washington Post technology columnist Taylor Lorenz said her Twitter account was suspended Saturday after she tweeted a request for comment at Elon Musk, the tech mogul who is the social network’s new owner, on a story she was working on.

Lorenz’s Twitter account (@TaylorLorenz), which she activated in 2010, had more than 340,000 followers before it was suspended. “Earlier tonight, Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account,” she wrote on her Substack. “I have not received any communication from the company regarding the reason for my suspension or the terms that I have violated.”

“Super crazy. Looks like Elon is blocking anyone he disagrees with,” Lorenz said in a TikTok video she shared Saturday night. Lorenz was tweeting from an alternative Twitter account, @nodreamsoflabor, before it was also banned.

Musk has not publicly commented on Lorenz’s Twitter comment. There was no response to a request for comment diverse Via email to the Twitter PR inbox.

The Twitter ban of Lorenz, who has been writing regularly on Twitter and Musk, comes after the mega-billionaire suspended the Twitter accounts of several journalists Thursday — claiming they had “exploited” him, after some (but not all) posted links to the account. that tracked down his private jet — before returning several on Friday night.

The deactivation of Lorenz’s account, without any clear explanation, makes it clear that Musk, who has called himself a “freedom of speech”, is now waging a campaign to keep information and comments critical of him off the platform he bought for $44 billion.

In the Substack post, Lorenz said there were only three direct tweets on her Twitter account when it was banned: two that promoted her TikTok and Instagram profiles, and a third asking Musk to comment on a story involving Musk and fellow WaPo Drew Harwell (whose account was banned). Then unblocked) it was working on.

Lorenz did not provide details on what the story is about. Her tweet at Musk said in part, “We have learned some information that we would like to share and discuss with you.”

At least two journalists banned from Twitter and then unblocked this week, Aaron Robar and Tony Webster, have denied having posted any information that could be interpreted as “doxxing,” which refers to sharing someone’s private information online without their permission. “This is not the freedom of speech we were promised,” Webster wrote on Twitter Friday night. “To be clear, there was no ‘distortion’ – even if a hasty and irresponsible oligarch said it.”

Twitter is asking some of the journalists it has suspended to delete tweets deemed to violate Musk’s new brand policy which prohibits sharing real-time location information (“regardless of whether such information is publicly available”). Podcast writer and political commentator Keith Olbermann on Saturday A post from his Twitter account for dog rescue Regarding @keitholbermann’s comment, “I got unblocked then temporarily blocked then reblocked then blocked until I delete a tweet you can’t see anyway… in a couple of hours. What a buffoon that snowflake @elonmusk is.”

Among the journalists whose Twitter accounts were suspended — and not reinstated — was Fox Business correspondent Susan Lee (@susanlitv), who said in a segment on the network Friday that she was kicked out of the social network after posting a link to a plane-tracking site. To show how Musk’s private jet can be tracked using publicly available sources. Also still blocked on Twitter as of Saturday is Insider’s Lynette Lopez (@lopezlinette), who has reported on Musk and his companies for years. Lopez told the AP that shortly before her suspension, she posted legal documents on Twitter that included an email address for Musk from 2018, but Lopez said it was not valid.

On Friday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the current chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Musk’s ban on journalists. “Elon Musk calls himself the ultimate freedom of expression, to justify turning a blind eye to hate and bigotry on Twitter. But when journalists report unfavorable news, they get banned without warning,” Schiff wrote in a post. tweet. “Obviously, dedication to free speech is not absolute. Hypocrisy is.”

musk answered To Schiff, “Fortunately, you will lose your presidency very soon. Your brain is very young.”

On Instagram, Lorenz posted a photo of herself on Saturday with New York Times reporter Ryan Mack, both of whom had their hands over their mouths.