Elon Musk Temporarily Suspended Taylor Lorenz From The Washington Post For 'Prior Doxxing Action'

UPDATE, 12/18, 10:05 AM PT: Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) account has been restored.

PREVIOUSLY: Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz says her Twitter account has been suspended on Saturday after she tweeted a request to comment on Elon Musk, the tech mogul who is the social network's new owner, on a story she was working on.

Lorenz's Twitter account, which she activated in 2010, had over 340,000 followers before to be suspended. "Earlier tonight Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account," she wrote on her Substack. "I have not received any communication from the company about the reasons for my suspension or the terms that I violated."

"Super crazy. Elon seems to ban anyone who disagrees with him,” Lorenz said in a TikTok video she shared on Saturday night. Lorenz had tweeted from another Twitter account, @nodreamsoflabor, before this was also banned.

At 6:23 a.m. PT on Sunday, Musk tweeted about Lorenz's Twitter account, "Suspension temporary due to prior doxxing by this account. Will be lifted shortly."

Musk seemed to partially reference an August 2020 article Lorenz wrote when she was working to the New York Times, which included a link to a Zillow listing for a digital creator "content house" that had previously been leased to Ariadna Jacob, the head of a social media talent management firm. (In a Dec. 15 tweet, Jacob alleged that Lorenz “dox[xed] me” via the NYT article; Musk replied on Friday, “Such disgraceful behavior will not be tolerated in the future.”) Lorenz was also accused of "doxxing" the creator of the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok by revealing her identity as Brooklyn realtor Chaya Raichik in an April 2022 article in The Washington Post; Lorenz had defended the decision to identify Raichik as the person behind Libs of TikTok by noting that she "is not just an average woman with a social media account" but a "powerful influencer operating an extremely right-wing media outlet." hard-hitting that shapes the discourse around LGBTQ+ rights. ."

The Twitter ban of Lorenz, who has regularly reported on Twitter and Musk, comes after the suspension of the mega-billionaire the Twitter accounts of several journalists on Thursday. Musk alleged they "doxxed" him, after some (but not all) posted links to an account that tracked his private jet, before reinstating several of them on Friday night.

The deactivation of Lorenz's account - in this case, apparently based on allegations of "doxxing" without to anything currently posted by Lorenz's Twitter account - makes it sound like Musk, who has called himself a "free speech absolutist", is now waging a campaign to keep the information and commentary criticism of him off the platform he bought for $44 billion.

In the Substack post, Lorenz said there were only three live tweets on her Twitter account when it was banned: two who promoted her profiles on TikTok and Instagram, and a third asking Musk to comment on a story involving Musk that she and fellow WaPo Drew Harwell (whose account has got banned and then unbanned) worked.