Hypocrisy and Fear All the Way Down at Twitter

Elon Musk has every right to be angry.

On Tuesday evening, a stalker climbed on top of a car carrying one of his children after deducing his location using an account that publishes the location of Musk’s private jet. No wrath is as righteous as a man’s whose loved ones are threatened.

His channeling of that anger, however righteous, is inadvisable, though. On Monday, Twitter’s euphemistic Trust and Safety team was disbanded. By Thursday, it had resurfaced in spirit if not in name.

Yesterday saw Musk suspend the Twitter accounts of a smattering of journalists and online influencers for, as Musk characterized it, “doxxing.”

“They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service,” tweeted Musk in defense of the suspensions.

To what extent is that true? Before this latest wave of suspensions, Twitter had already suspended the account posting the location of Musk’s jet. Then, the company removed the account of competing social media company Mastodon for posting a link to the jet tracker’s account on that platform.

Despite Musk’s claims, the charges he’s leaning on don’t appear to apply to the third round of interconnected punishments.

The Washington Post‘s Drew Harwell last posted about the suspension of the Mastodon account, and according to the Los Angeles Times, Mashable’s Matt Binder and CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan were suspended for sharing a statement from the city’s police department noting that Musk had not filed charges against the stalker.

Binder has directly denied the allegations against him. “I did not share any location data, as per Twitter’s new terms. Nor did I share any links to ElonJet or other location tracking accounts,” said Binder. O’Sullivan warned of the “potential chilling effect” on speech and journalism while mocking Musk’s claim to being a free speech advocate.

“Musk seems to be just stamping out accounts that he doesn’t like,” he submitted.

Stipulating the disputed accounts of what the journalists have been suspended for and taking no side in that dispute, it seems fair to declare that Musk has made a conspicuous mistake. Even if everyone were to take for granted that Musk’s version of events was completely accurate, it would be difficult for the mogul to retain his status as a champion of free expression while erring against it in every edge case involving himself.

Do the activities of the jet-tracking account constitute especially valuable speech? Do breathless tweets from journalists covering it? The answers any individual might have (mine are ‘no’ and ‘probably not’) don’t especially matter considering the fact that Musk has professed to be waging “a battle for the future of civilization,” and argued that “if free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.”

After you’ve drawn such a strong distinction, you can’t make any mistake about which side you belong on.

As for Musk’s most hysterical critics: What to make of their silence under the prior Twitter regime? The one that banned the president and upheld the Ayatollah. The one that censored accurate reporting on the eve of an election because its content was inconvenient and therefore suspect. The one that suspended The Babylon Bee — the conservative Onion — for its satire related to an issue of public controversy.

Silence then has turned to ceaseless whinging now, even though Musk’s censorship regime appears to be less of a case of systemic viewpoint discrimination than it is reactive outburst.

So infamous are Musk’s actions, the speech suppressors at the European Union and professional appeasers at the United Nations have found reason to condemn them.

Stunning and brave, indeed.

A “victim’s” hypocrisy doesn’t nullify the underlying crime of censoring in the name of safety, though; Musk, as well as his most ardent critics, are guilty of both hypocrisy and a self-interested safety-ism.

Selective outrage is human and can only be limited, rather than rooted out entirely. The fear-driven behavior at the top of Twitter and almost every other elite institution, on the other hand? That can and should go the way of the Dodo.

UPDATE: This post has been updated to correct the original characterization of the Join Mastodon Twitter account as being the account of “John Mastodon,” who is not a person as far as we know. – ed.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.