Irish journalist Donie O'Sullivan among those suspended from Twitter

Fri, 16 Dec, 2022 - 13:12

James Cox

Irish CNN journalist Donie O'Sullivan was among a group suspended from Twitter, all those suspended have covered the social media site's controversial owner Elon Musk.

Journalists from The New York Times and The Washington Post also had their accounts suspended.

Kerry native O'Sullivan told CNN: "What’s basically happened... just really over the past hour or so is a number of journalists at national news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and here at CNN, have been permanently, it seems, suspended from Twitter.

"Now, all those journalists, including myself, happen to be people who cover Elon Musk. This is Elon Musk, of course, the free speech absolutist who likes the first amendment."

He added: "In terms of me personally and many of the national reporters at the Times and the Post, we’re okay. I’m here on the Anderson Cooper show... we have a platform and just like when [Donald] Trump got kicked off... we can post elsewhere. I do think this is very important about the potential chilling impact this might have for freelance journalists and independent journalists around the world, particularly those who cover Elon Musk’s other companies like Tesla and SpaceX,”

The day before his suspension, Mr O'Sullivan had reported on the suspension of a Twitter account which tracked the movements of Mr Musk's private jet.

He interviewed the man who ran the account, Jack Sweeney. Mr Sweeney also had his personal account suspended by Mr Musk.

A CNN statement read: "The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising. Twitter's increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses the platform. We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response."

As he did before reinstating the account of former US president Trump, Mr Musk suspended the journalists following a poll posted on his own account.

He has since posted another poll on whether to reinstate the journalists' accounts and those of Mr Sweeney.