Twitter Monday upheld the suspension of VOA Chief National Correspondent and JURIST Journalist in Residence Steve Herman’s Twitter account. Twitter first suspended Herman’s account, along with those of other journalists, on December 15, 2022. Twitter continues to claim that Herman’s tweets, containing reference to accounts that track public flight data of Twitter owner Elon Musk, violate Twitter’s new rules against “posting private information.”
Herman posted the response to his appeal of Twitter’s decision to ban his account on his Mastodon account Monday. Twitter’s response to Herman’s appeal read, in part, “Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision.” Twitter also told Herman that he would be unable to access Twitter unless he removed the content that had been flagged.
Herman told JURIST he was disappointed with Twitter’s decision saying: “As before, I do not intend to remove the tweets as that would be an admission that I did something wrong and would set a precedent for arbitrary and capricious censorship.”
Twitter first instituted its rules against posting private information in early December. The privacy policy states that Twitter users “may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission.” There is an exception, however, for information shared somewhere else online before being posted to Twitter. Despite this, Twitter still states that they may take action if the sharing of the information presents “the potential for physical harm.”
The @ElonJet account at the center of the controversy is an account that automatically pulls publicly available data to track the flights and geo-location data of Musk’s private jet. Musk permanently banned @ElonJet from Twitter on December 14, 2022, just a day before the wave of suspensions that impacted Herman. Musk claimed the @ElonJet account activity amounted to “doxxing,” sharing another person’s location information without consent. Herman called Musk’s claims “utterly ridiculous” in an interview with JURIST.
Twitter suspended Herman’s account after he attempted to post a tweet containing links to @ElonJet’s Mastodon and Facebook accounts. Herman is among at least five other journalists whose account access was not restored when Twitter lifted some of the suspensions on December 17, 2022. Twitter claimed it would not restore access unless the journalists agreed to delete tweets referencing @ElonJet.
On December 22, 2022, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a nonprofit whistleblower protection and advocacy organization, filed a complaint with two US Congressional committees requesting review of Twitter’s actions. JURIST has urged Twitter to “immediately reinstate Herman’s account and to implement robust and transparent policies safeguarding press freedom.” In solidarity with Herman and the other journalists banned by Twitter, JURIST has paused all Twitter operations since December 16, 2022.
