Journalist Taylor Lorenz’s Twitter account was reinstated Sunday, hours after being suspended for what platform owner Elon Musk described as “prior doxxing action.”
Lorenz, a technology columnist for The Washington Post, wrote on Substack that Musk issued the ban Saturday night after she tweeted an inquiry for a story she was working on.
“Hi Elon, @drewharwell and I sent you a couple emails about this,” Lorenz’s tweet reads. “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.”
The suspension came two days after Ariadna Jacob, who runs a talent management firm, tweeted about Lorenz allegedly publishing her address in a New York Times article without her permission. Musk replied to Jacob’s tweet, “Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated going forward.”
A 2020 New York Times article authored by Lorenz is at the center of a lawsuit filed by Jacobs seeking $11.6 million in damages.
Lorenz became the latest journalist who covers Musk or Twitter to be suspended this week, with reporters for CNN and The New York Times among the others.
The bans for Lorenz and other Washington Post journalists were condemned by the newspaper’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, who called for all to be reinstated.
Buzbee also said the “arbitrary suspension of another Post journalist further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.”
On Sunday, Musk described Lorenz’s suspension for “prior doxxing action” as temporary. Lorenz acknowledged her return to Twitter hours later by posting an image of a bandaged man in a hospital bed.
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In her Substack post Saturday, Lorenz said no one from Twitter informed her why she was suspended.
“Never once in my 13 year career in social media have I received a single terms of service or community guidelines violation, for my personal account or any account that I’ve run,” Lorenz wrote.
“Twitter has served as an essential real time news source and played a crucial role in the journalism world, but Musk’s arbitrary suspensions of journalists who report on him should worry anyone who values journalism and free expression.”
Lorenz wrote her account only had three active tweets at the time of her suspension, including two promoting her profiles on other platforms.
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On Sunday, Twitter announced it will “remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms.”
“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms,” reads the announcement on the Twitter Support page. “However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.”
A follow-up tweet specified “we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.”
Musk, who completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in October, last week vowed to crack down on doxxing, which refers to publishing someone’s personal information.
“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Musk tweeted Dec. 14. “This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.”
The billionaire later polled Twitter to ask when he should lift suspensions for users who shared his real-time location, with the majority of voters saying, “now.”
Last week, Twitter suspended and reinstated an account tracking Musk’s private plane.
