Twitter CEO Elon Musk suspended left-wing Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz on Saturday night after saying late last week that her “shameful behavior” would not be tolerated on the platform in the future.
Lorenz claimed in a blog post that she “received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated.”
She suggested that she was suspended because she tweeted at Musk asking him for a comment on a story.
“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,” she claimed. “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 free speech and expression.”
The popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok posted a screenshot of Lorenz’s account being suspended.
“Taylor Lorenz- the person who doxxed me was just suspended from Twitter,” Libs of TikTok posted. “Taylor campaigned Twitter to ban me multiple times. She also campaigned substack and shopify to ban me and complained when [Instagram] and Facebook gave me my account back. I have ZERO sympathy.”
Taylor campaigned Twitter to ban me multiple times. She also campaigned substack and shopify to ban me and complained when IG and Facebook gave me my account back. I have ZERO sympathy. https://t.co/iGkQNTuwJu
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 18, 2022
On Friday, Musk responded to a tweet from Ariadna Jacob, who wrote: “I’m not famous and I wasn’t a public figure either when Taylor Lorenz asked for my address, said it wasn’t for publication and then proceeded to dox me in the NYT with the address she had assured me she wasn’t going to publish. The article was shared many x on Twitter.”
Musk responded to the tweet: “Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated going forward.”
Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated going forward
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2022
While many conservatives typically oppose online censorship, it seemed as though there was a near-unanimous consensus from the right side of the political spectrum that this was not a typical censorship case.
Podcast host Tim Pool tweeted: “Taylor Lorenz finally got suspended for all the awful things she’s done.”
“Banning Taylor Lorenz is the best thing Elon Musk has done for this website,” said digital strategist Caleb Hull.
“Elon Musk decided to stop entertaining the liars on the far left. Good,” writer Ian Miles Cheong tweeted. “We need more of this. These people will stop at nothing to destroy you and all that you stand for.”
Political commentator Mike Cernovich tweeted: “Was out with friends and then checked in to see this. Is that what people mean by a night cap (sic)?”