Twitter suspends CT reporter’s account after criticizing Musk

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NEW HAVEN Twitter on Friday suspended the account of Connecticut journalist Terry Cowgill for several hours after the veteran editor and columnist weighed in on a controversy surrounding the site’s new owner, Elon Musk.

Cowgill confirmed his account with over 800 subscribers was suspended without notice during an appearance on CT Politics TV on Friday night. He attributed the suspension to a tweet he posted that included a link to a website that published generic flight tracking data.

On Saturday morning, it emerged that Cowgill’s account had been restored, along with those of other reporters. Cowgill also shared a screenshot of a message sent by Twitter asking him to voluntarily delete the offending message, although he told CT Insider that it “would feel like a guilty plea” and weighed in. always his options.

Twitter representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

It’s one of those things you don’t expect to happen out of the blue, Cowgill said, adding that Twitter gave him no warning before shutting down his account.

Speaking to CT Insider by phone on Friday, Cowgill explained that the string of tweets leading up to his suspension started as a back-and-forth with a user he described as a parent rights activist expressing his support. to Musks’ actions to remove the aircraft tracking apps account, as well as those of journalists who had written about the controversy.

“It’s not considered private information, and Musks treats it as it is,” Cowgill said, summing up the point he was making.

To drive the point home, Cowgill said he posted a link to a website that publishes flight data on thousands of aircraft in the United States and around the world, including commercial, military and private jets.

About an hour later, Cowgill said he went online to check his feed and received notice that his account was “permanently suspended.”

It’s a clumsy use of language, Cowgill, a former editor, said of the notice. You are either suspended indefinitely or banned.

Cowgill lives in Salisbury, where he has worked for the past decade as a freelance columnist for the CT News Junkie news site. One of the recent topics explored in one of his columns was the free-speech implications of a Litchfield County woman’s decision to put up a giant pro-Trump banner outside her home, much to the anger of his neighbors.

Previously, he worked as editor of the Berkshire Edge in Great Barrington, Mass., and as a journalist in New York.

Christine Stuart, editor of CT News Junkie, said Cowgill informed her Friday afternoon of her suspension and the apparent reason.

According to the New York Times, at least eight other journalists, including those working for The Times, The Washington Post and CNN, had been suspended from Twitter after covering Musk’s retaliation against accounts tracking his private jets and others. (In November, Musk vowed not to take action against those accounts, citing the right to free speech.)

Cowgill noted that Musk took over Twitter in October with the promise of open and free expression, including posts containing misinformation or hate speech.

I guess he’s just a hypocrite more than anything, Cowgill said.

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