Roland Lescure has left Twitter after suspending several journalists

POLICY – You will not receive my tweet. French Industry Minister Roland Lescure has announced that he will stop working on Twitter this Friday, December 16. The decision comes a day after the platform’s new head, controversial billionaire Elon Musk, suspended several accounts of American journalists.

” Following the suspension of journalist accounts by Elon Musk, I am suspending all Twitter activity until further notice. “, thus wrote the French minister in the middle of the morning. before closing your post to highlight on your profile. For which message? It wakes up its surroundings HuffPost a” spontaneous and personal decision this is partly explained by the minister’s personal history.

“His father was a journalist and he is very sensitive to press freedom”, we are told. ” And eA former representative of the French in North America, he is also sensitive to the fact that journalists from CNN or the United States. Washington post who were targeted. This is too much. » And what does it matter if it hurts the visibility of a manager who is relatively unknown to the general public. ” There are already other networks and this is not the only one. Freedom of the press is not negotiable. we still decide within its environment.

“We have a problem with Twitter”

In the same vein, Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s Minister for the Digital Transition, said to himself: Elon Musk is worried about the slide that brought down Twitter » “Freedom of the press is the basis of democracy. To attack one is to attack the other “, he pinged on Twitter. However, without announcing that he will leave or at least stop his activity on the platform like his colleague Roland Lescure.

Elon Musk, in fact, has been at the center of a global outcry since the removal of dozens of American journalists from his platform, including media workers from the likes of CNN (Donie O’Sullivan), New York Times (Ryan Mac). Washington Post (Drew Harwell) and independent journalists. Some tweeted about the decision by Bluebird Network’s new head of Twitter to stop the account that automatically reports private jet trips.

We call these final decisions“disturbing”, Vice-president of the European Commission, Vera Jourova, reminded that there is “red lines” Threatens with Elon Musk” sanctions soon “. “Freedom of the press cannot be easily switched on and off”The German Foreign Ministry still added on the social network. “This is why we have a problem with Twitter”He also added German diplomacy.

For its part, Twitter did not disclose why these accounts were suspended or for how long. The owner of the social network, which has been the source of much controversy since its purchase in October, gave some indication in a series of tweets from Thursday to Friday night.

“Accounts linked to doxxing (disclosure of personal data without the consent of the interested party, editor’s note) Get a 7 day suspension” Expressing that these rules are applied, Elon Musk clarified « to ‘journalists’ (with citations, editor’s note) like everyone else”. It is not enough to explain the suspension of Mastodon’s account, which is a competitor of the social network, although it is more private.

Also see The HuffPost: