Washington Post tech reporter Taylor Lorenz was briefly suspended from Twitter on Saturday because of what CEO Elon Musk said was “prior doxxing action by this account.”
Lorenz said her account, which numbers some 340,000 followers, was taken down after she sought comment from Musk for a Washington Post story she was working on.
The suspension was lifted on Sunday and Lorenz’s account was restored. Lorenz said she believed she was suspended because she posted links to her accounts on other social media platforms.
Musk hinted over the weekend that Lorenz’s “doxxing” stemmed from allegations that were revealed in a lawsuit filed against the reporter and her previous employer, the New York Times, by a social media influencer manager.
Ariadna Jacob, 38, filed a defamation suit earlier this year against Lorenz and the Times over a 2020 article that she said led to the demise of her talent management business.
Lorenz allegedly manipulated Jacob’s star TikTok clients into making damaging accusations — one of which was that Jacob leaked nude photos of one of the teens.
The Times has denied the allegations and vowed to fight the suit in court.
Jacob on Friday tweeted a snippet from the lawsuit in which she accused Lorenz of “doxxing” her by linking to a Zillow page with information about the Los Angeles home that she lived in at the time.
“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,” Jacob tweeted on Friday.
“The article was shared many x on Twitter.”
Jacob’s tweet was aimed at Musk, who responded: “Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated going forward.”
Jacob told The Post on Monday that Musk did not reach out to her personally, though she was pleased the world’s second richest man took an interest in her case.
“The problem with influencer journalists like Taylor Lorenz is that they are rarely held accountable,” Jacob told The Post.
“It’s telling that many reporters still champion Lorenz as a social media expert and victim of online harassment but they ignore our lawsuit against Lorenz and my personal story.”
“It’s a stark contrast to Elon Musk, a billionaire running several companies who took the time to learn my story and take swift action on what I agree is shameful behavior,” she added.
Lorenz earlier this year was accused of “doxxing” the anonymous social media user who operates the popular account “Libs of TikTok.”
The Washington Post reporter revealed that Chaya Raichik, a Brooklyn-based real estate agent, was the creator of the account, which posts unflattering videos of liberals.
The account, which is followed by more than 1.7 million Twitter users, has been retweeted by prominent politicians and media personalities, including Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan.
Raichik blasted Lorenz for showing up to her relatives’ home while reporting the story. Lorenz denied allegations she harassed Raichik’s family, saying it was part of the usual legwork of gathering facts for a newspaper article.
Lorenz told Variety that she never engaged in the practice of “doxxing” — which is the publishing of a person’s private and sensitive information on the internet with the intent of triggering widespread harassment.
Musk on Sunday announced a new rule for Twitter users that bars them from operating accounts whose “primary purpose is promotion of competitors, which essentially falls under the no-spam rule.”
Lorenz wrote an entry for her Substack newsletter on Saturday stating that she had been suspended.
“Earlier tonight, Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account,” Lorenz wrote. “I received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated.”
Lorenz also posted a video to her TikTok account in which she discussed the ban.
“Super crazy. Elon seems to be banning anyone who disagrees with him,” Lorenz said in the clip.
Lorenz had tried to circumvent the Twitter ban by posting from another account with the handle @nodreamsoflabor before it, too, was suspended.
Musk last week suspended several journalists from Twitter after he alleged that they “doxxed” his family by posting their exact location in real time.
The Twitter boss alleged that the account that tracks his private jet flights, the now-banned @Elonjet, was used by a stalker who tailed a car that was carrying his infant son in Los Angeles.
Jack Sweeney, the 20-year-old Florida-based college sophomore, denied to The Post that his @Elonjet account could have been used to harass Musk’s family.
Los Angeles police said they had not received any complaints about an alleged stalker.
After public outcry, Musk lifted the suspensions of the journalists — all of whom were left-leaning critics of the mogul’s stewardship of Twitter since he completed his $44 billion acquisition of the company in late October.
Lorenz has sparked controversy in years past.
She appeared on MSNBC earlier this year and broke down in tears while describing “PTSD” and “suicidal thoughts” after she was criticized by prominent media personalities including Tucker Carlson of Fox News and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald.