Elon Musk disables Twitter Spaces after clash with journalists

Twitter Inc.’s live audio platform, Twitter Spaces, is down after many journalists who had just had their accounts suspended learned they could still participate in it.

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, announced late on Thursday that the company was resolving an old fault and that the audio service “should be working tomorrow.”

We’re fixing a Legacy bug. Should be working tomorrow.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022

Earlier, Musk’s network suspended journalists for seven days, including those from CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, for allegedly leaking the whereabouts of his private jet.

Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post and Matt Binder of Mashable, two of the suspended reporters, joined BuzzFeed News reporter Katie Notopoulos on Twitter Spaces to discuss the sudden wave of suspensions.

They could no longer post new tweets and their old ones were no longer viewable, but they could still interact with other users on the Spaces site.

Musk also joined the session after it attracted thousands of listeners to bluntly state that anyone who doxxes—gives another person’s personal location information—will be suspended. The journalists said that they had not posted any real-time flight data, as Musk alleged, but by then the billionaire had quit the call.

The live session drew more than 40,000 listeners at its peak.