Twitter owner Elon Musk confirmed that the Twitter account for Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz was suspended for “prior doxxing.” Musk added in his Sunday morning tweet that the suspension is temporary and “will be lifted shorty.”
The suspension didn’t last long. Early Sunday afternoon Lorenz’s Twitter account was active again.
Of course she wasn’t thrilled about things Saturday night.
Lorenz wrote on a Substack post titled, “Elon Musk banned me from Twitter” that the social media platform’s new CEO “suspended” her Twitter account.
She added that her “colleague Drew Harwell, who has also been suspended, and I have been working on a story involving Musk and were hoping to get comment from him. We attempted to reach him several times through email over the past few days.” Lorenz noted that at 8:30pm EST she tried “reaching out for comment on Twitter” to Musk in a post that promised, “We’re taking this very seriously and want to ensure this is pursued the right way.”
Lorenz said when she logged in to see if Musk had responded, she learned she “was suspended. I received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated.”
More from Lorenz:
“I have been on Twitter since 2010 and have run Twitter account for major media brands including Verizon, WordPress, The Daily Mail, People magazine, The Hill, and dozens more. 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.
“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 also posted video about her plight — while decked out in a glittery getup and appearing to force a smile:
Variety reported that Lorenz was tweeting from an alternate Twitter account, @nodreamsoflabor, before that also was banned.
What’s the background?
Lorenz made national headlines in April after she was accused of doxxing the creator of Libs of TikTok:
What’s more, Lorenz cried tears on camera earlier that same month, claiming she endured online harassment:
How are folks reacting?
All that said, it will come as no surprise that numerous folks have been saying Lorenz’s suspension from Twitter serves her right:
- “Taylor Lorenz finally got suspended for all the awful things she’s done,” journalist Tim Pool said.
- “Elon Musk suspended Taylor Lorenz because she was literally tricking people into giving her their address so she could xox them,” Matt Wallace, CEO at DXM, said. “Fully justified!”
- Journalist Pedro Gonzalez wrote, “Taylor Lorenz spends her time trying to dox people, spends her days lying about people, spends her time ugly crying on TV that she’s the victim … I’m *glad* her account was suspended, and you should be, too.”
- And: “On behalf of all of us here at the Louder with Crowder Dot Com website, we wish Taylor Lorenz the best in her future endeavors.”
Commentator Stephen L. Miller, however, veered in a slightly different direction: “She has been one of the leading advocates of getting people banned and censored across platforms from social media. Also, Taylor Lorenz should not have been suspended from Twitter.”
Anything else?
Musk on Thursday suspended a number of journalists — along with leftist commentator Keith Olbermann — from Twitter for posting about an account that was tracking his private flights.
But Musk soon announced — after running a poll about their fate — that he would reinstate the accounts of the suspended journalists: “The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now.”