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The Washington Post’s technology culture writer Taylor Lorenz has been permanently suspended from Twitter amid the company’s owner Elon Musk‘s ongoing purge of journalists from the platform.
Her removal from Twitter comes just after the tech giant announced new policies on doxing, something that Lorenz has been accused of in the past.
Shortly after Lorenz’s suspension was confirmed, the former New York Times journalist posted a video to TikTok where she could be seen in a formal dress, smiling ear-to-ear, confirming to the world that she was banned.
Lorenz, who says in the clip that she’s with the Times Ryan Mac, who was also suspended, uses the opportunity to promote her other social media handles and proclaims that she did not violate any Twitter rules.
The reporter adds that hours before her suspension, she had reached out to Musk for comment on a story.
Taylor Lorenz shown announcing her suspension to the world in a TikTok video
According to the landing page on Lorenz’s Twitter account, her account was suspended for ‘violating the Twitter rules’ but the disclaimer does not offer any specific information.
The new move comes just after Musk reinstated the account of several journalists who he had banned for allegedly doxing the movements of his private jet.
Following her suspension, Lorenz also wrote a blog on her Substack page in which she said that she was unable to log in to her account shortly after reaching out to Twitter owner Elon Musk for comment on a story.
Lorenz said: ‘I only had three tweets live on my account when it was banned. Two were promoting my social media profiles on other platforms and one was the tweet below where I asked Musk for comment.’
She had written to Musk: ‘Hi Elon, Drew Harwell and I send you a couple emails about this. We’ve learned some information that we’d like to share and discuss with you. We’re taking this very seriously and want to ensure this is pursued the right way thanks.’
At the time of writing, Harwell’s account remains active.
The tweet that apparently broke the camel’s back, Lorenz asked Musk for comment on a story hours before her suspension
In April, the Washington Post journalist was criticized by conservative media outlets after she published an expose on Chaya Raichik, the Orthodox Jewish mastermind behind the widely successful Twitter account Libs of TikTok
Lorenz continued saying: ‘When I went to log in and see if he had responded to our query, I was suspended. I received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated.’
She added: ‘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 journalist’s who report on him should worry anyone who values free speech and expression,’ Lorenz continued.
In April, the Washington Post journalist was criticized by conservative media outlets after she published an expose on Chaya Raichik, the Orthodox Jewish mastermind behind the widely successful Twitter account Libs of TikTok.
Taylor Lorenz, an ‘internet culture’ columnist for the Washington Post, had voiced her concerns over the recent Twitter suspensions of journalists
The Libs of TikTok account tweeted about Lorenz’s video announcing her suspension saying: ‘It’s incredible watching these “journalists” just in absolute shock at finally being held to the same standard as everyone else. They’re so used to living by a different set of rules.’
On TikTok talent scout Ariadna Jacob tweeted screenshots of an interaction that she had with Lorenz in which Jacob accused the journalist of doxing her in a 2020 New York Times article and publicly revealing her address.
Musk replied to the tweet saying: ‘Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated going forward.’
Following the suspensions of journalists such as CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, the New York Times’ Ryan Mac and Mashable’s Matt Binder, Lorenz had voiced her anger at the decision.
She tweeted: ‘It’s very shady. I don’t understand how news organizations are going to continue to use this platform if they are censoring journalists.’
Lorenz followed that up by posting links to her other social media accounts.
Just last month, Lorenz was roundly criticized for a tweet she sent out criticizing her former New York Times colleague Bari Weiss.
Weiss was one of the journalists charged by Elon Musk with releasing the Twitter files, exposing the company’s secrets regarding the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story and other major issues.
In tweeting a story about Weiss starting a new media venture named the Free Press, Lorenz wrote: ‘Notable what gets framed as a ‘buzzy media startup.’ If u start off rich, have a rich spouse, rich friends, don’t follow any journalistic ethical rules, and focus your content solely on serving the interests of extremely powerful rich ppl, you can go far!’
Lorenz wrote on her Substack page: ‘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’
Also in November, Lorenz made headlines for slamming her own newspaper’s reporting on China and its opposition of Covid lockdowns in the country.
She was responding to an article tweeted by the Post’s official account about China’s record number of coronavirus cases, noting how only a tiny proportion its billion-strong population are vaccinated.
‘There is no lasting ‘natural immunity’ to COVID. You can get covid over and over and over again bc there are so many endlessly evolving strains and antibodies wane. Also, choosing not to kill off millions of vulnerable people (as the US is doing) isn’t a ‘critical flaw’,’ Lorenz wrote.
Twitter users were appalled Lorenz would seemingly defend the authoritarian country’s lockdowns and implied human rights violations – with one user accusing her of ‘spreading misinformation’ noting how her editors were unlikely to sanction her because any controversy would lead to more views for the Post’s website.
Lorenz later attempted to clarify her earlier tweet by suddenly praising the Post’s reporting adding how the article contained ‘a lot more nuance btw’.
There were also very few direct responses to Lorenz’s original tweet because her Twitter settings do not allow for a right of reply unless followed by her directly.
‘A coronavirus outbreak on the verge of being China’s biggest of the pandemic has exposed a critical flaw in Beijing’s ‘zero Covid’ strategy: a vast population without natural immunity,’ the post said.
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