AOC sympathizes with Musk after he banned nine journalists for ‘posting assassination co-ordinates’

Representative Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez took to Twitter Thursday night to say she sympathized with Elon Musk’s desire to prevent himself from being doxed — but still branded his ban on nine journalists ‘proto-fascism.’

Her comments come after Musk suspended the accounts of at least nine journalists who he said tweeted links to an account which tracks the movements of his private jet, an action he likened to posting ‘assassination coordinates.’

The congresswoman said ‘I get get feeling unsafe,’ noting that she has also experienced similar threats to her safety, and added that she felt the billionaire was ‘descending into abuse of power’ to try to protect himself.

Journalists Ryan Mac of the New York Times, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Matt Binder of Mashable, Michah Lee of The Intercept, Steven Herman of VOA, along with Aaron Rupar, Tony Webster, and Keith Olberman, all found their Twitter accounts suspended on Thursday.

Following the suspensions, CNN posted a statement saying it had asked Twitter to explain, and that it would ‘reevaluate our relationship based on that response.’

Some of the journalists appeared to have been suspended for Tweeting links to the social media platform Mastadon – a Twitter alternative – where @ElonJet tracked Musk’s private jet with public information migrated after it was banned from Twitter yesterday.

Mastadon’s Twitter account was banned yesterday, which Harwell pointed out in a tweet linking to the account. His account was suspended some time after.

After Harwell was suspended, Olbermann Tweeted about what had happened, and posted a link to Mastadon while imploring other others to do the same.

It remains unclear whether the other reporters Tweeted about Mastadon or @ElonJet.

Musk took to Twitter Thursday night to accuse the suspended journalists of doxxing him – the act of revealing identifying personal information online.

‘They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service,’ he wrote.

‘Same doxxing rules apply to “journalists” as to everyone else,’ he added, and noted that the suspension would last seven days.

Musk even hopped on a call with a group of journalists to explain his doxxing policy.

‘As I’m sure everyone who’s been doxxed would agree, showing real time information about somebody’s location is inappropriate, and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them, and there’s not gonna be any distinction in future between journalists – so called journalists – and regular people,’ he said on the call.

‘Everyone’s gonna be treated the same. You’re not special cause you’re a journalist. your a citizen. So, no special treatment. You dox, you get suspended, end of story. and no ban-evasion, or trying to be clever about, like ‘Oh I posted a link to the real time information,’ is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning, that is no different from actually showing real time information.’

Musk’s crusade against doxxing and @ElonJet was ignited this week after he claimed a stalker jumped on the hood of a car carrying his son.

Explaining the ordeal, Musk said: ‘Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.’

‘Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family,’ he added, referring to @ElonJet creator Jack Sweeney.

It is unclear how Musk connected @ElonJet to the stalking incident, which did not appear to involve his private plane in any way.

As outrage about the suspensions swirled on Twitter Thursday night, Musk joined the fray with his own deluge of comments, which included a poll asking users when he should reinstate the banned journalist’s tweets, a tirade about how President Biden would react if journalists’ were doxxed, and a declaration of his love for Barbara Streisand.

‘If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!’ he wrote.

He added a poll titled ‘Unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time,’ with the options ‘Now,’ ‘Tomorrow,’ ‘7 Days from now,’ ‘Longer.’

When the poll came back with a 43 percent majority calling for ‘Now,’ Musk replied that he would redo it because he’d provided too many options.

CNN spoke out against the suspension of O’Sullivan in a statement posted to Twitter.

‘The unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising,’ the outlet wrote. ‘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 will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.’

The New York Times said Mac Twitter gave him no explanation about his suspension, according to NBC News.

‘We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action,’ the Times told the outlet.

Rupar said he had ‘no idea’ why he was suspended, according to NBC journalist Ben Collins. Each of the other journalists banned had recently been covering Musk.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in, saying while she understood Musk’s fears over his safety as a public figure, she called his approach to the problem ‘proto-facism.’

‘As someone who has been subject to real + dangerous plots, I do get it. I didn’t have security and have experienced many scary incidents,’ she wrote in one tweet. ‘In fact, many of the right-wing outlets you now elevate published photos of my home, car, etc. At a certain point you gotta disconnect.’

‘You’re a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one. I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you.’

‘Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone,’ she followed up.

A spokesperson for Twitter told The Verge they wouldn’t comment on specific suspensions, but added any users putting others at risk would be banned.

‘Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk,’ the Spokesperson said.

Last night Musk CEO posted a video of the man who he said was the stalker.

In the short video, the suspect was seen wearing a black hood and driving a white Hyundai – before picking up his phone to record the encounter himself.

The video, believed to be filmed by Musk’s driver, then panned towards the car’s license plate. There was a short exchange with the alleged stalker – where the driver seemed to utter: ‘Got it.’

When one horrified Twitter follower asked if this was the man who jumped on the hood of the car, billionaire Musk confirmed and said: ‘Yeah.’

He elaborated on the rationale for the decision to ban @ElonJet, saying that accounts which published where people were located in ‘real-time’ were a ‘physical safety violation.’

‘Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation.’

‘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.’

Sweeney’s jet account was suspended Wednesday morning. He tweeted at Musk asking how long of a delay was necessary for there to be no safety response, and then by Wednesday evening the account – and his personal account – were suspended again.

Musk has previously gone after @elonjet, which Sweeney set up in 2020 when he was 19 because he was a super-fan of the billionaire and wanted to see how he managed his businesses.

In 2021, Musk offered Sweeney, 20,  $5,000 to take down the account, which he saw as a risk to his safety.