Elon Musk announces Twitter accounts engaged in doxxing to be suspended for 7 days

Elon Musk has said that anyone who doxxes a person on Twitter, will be suspended from Twitter for 7 days. So, what is doxxing? Doxxing means releasing private information of someone on the internet with malicious intent. The private information can be where they live, what their phone number is, which school their kids attend, etc. The incident that motivated Elon Musk to make this decision is worth a mention. A car that was carrying Elon Musk's little son was stalked by someone two days ago. This stalker climbed on top of Musk's car when the Tesla CEO was not present in the car but his son was. 

"Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked the car from moving & climbed onto the hood. Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family," Musk wrote on Twitter. This incident is related to Twitter because there are accounts on Twitter that track Musk's real time location and keep posting that information on Twitter.

Some time ago, Musk had written on Twitter that his commitment to free speech is so pure that he isn't even suspending accounts which release his real time location, posing a risk to his life. "Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok," Musk wrote. 

7 days of suspension for anyone engaging in doxxing 

Taylor Lorenz, a journalist, claimed that Musk is banning journalists who have criticised him. She didn't provide evidence to back this claim. Musk responded to her statement by writing that criticizing him all day is fine but releasing his real time location and endangering his family is not. After responding to Lorenz's claim, Musk restated his position that anyone who engages in doxxing, will be suspended for 7 days. Musk conducted a poll on Twitter to see what people on Twitter thought of his decision. Musk also said that if anyone doxxed the real time location of New York Times reporters, the FBI "would be investigating them" and "Biden would be giving speeches about the end of democracy".