On Friday, the German Foreign Office tweeted screenshots of journalists’ Twitter accounts that had been suspended, telling the social media platform that suspending their accounts was unacceptable.
“Press freedom cannot be switched on and off on a whim,” the ministry wrote on its official Twitter page. “The journalists below can no longer follow us, comment and criticize. We have a problem with that, @Twitter.”
#Pressefreiheit darf nicht nach Belieben ein- und ausgeschaltet werden. Unten stehende Journalisten können auch uns ab heute nicht mehr folgen, kommentieren und kritisieren. Damit haben wir ein Problem @Twitter. pic.twitter.com/Cliuih8Gyq
— Auswärtiges Amt (@AuswaertigesAmt) December 16, 2022
“Arbitrary locking of journalists’ accounts is unacceptable,” deputy government spokesperson Wolfgang Buechner tweeted, threatening to leave the platform if the policy is not changed.
Eine persönliche Anmerkung: Die willkürliche Sperrung von Journalisten-Accounts auf @Twitter ist inakzeptabel. Falls sich diese Entwicklung fortsetzt, werde ich diese Plattform verlassen. Ich bin auf Mastodon Punkt Social unter wbuechner zu finden. https://t.co/x86ik4kpwu
— Wolfgang Buechner (@wbuechner) December 16, 2022
Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists who had been covering the company and Elon Musk’s takeover on Thursday.
The move comes just one day after the social media platform altered its policies regarding accounts that tracked private jets, including one owned by Musk.
Journalist’s whose accounts were suspended include New York Times reporter Ryan Mac, Washington Post reporter Drew Hall, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Matt Binder of Mashable, The Intercept’s Micah Lee and Steve Herman of Voice of America.
Mastodon, a social media company known as an alternative to Twitter, was also suspended on Thursday. The platform has not officially stated why the accounts were removed.
To read our blog on “Twitter banned misleading climate change advertisements,” click here