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Spaceflight Now was banned from Twitter while covering a SpaceX rocket launch, its editor says.
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The space news site is one of the few to follow the live broadcast diligently.
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It’s not clear which Twitter rules Spaceflight Now may have violated or why his tweet was removed.
The space news website covering SpaceX’s first launch in 2023 may be the latest journalism account to be banned from Twitter.
SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk, launched 114 small satellites into orbit on Tuesday. As usual, several news outlets and YouTube channels closely followed the launch, from the preparations an hour before launch, to the landing of the Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth, to the deployment of satellites into orbit.
One of these news sites, Spaceflight Now, which was live-streaming the mission, suddenly stopped tweeting near the end of the launch. The website’s editor, Stephen Clark, said in a tweet that account was banned “for violating unspecified rules while covering the SpaceX launch.”
The insider was unable to confirm this information. Clark did not share further information. He, Twitter, and SpaceX did not immediately respond to Insider requests for comment.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Spaceflight Now Twitter account did not appear to be suspended, but was marked with a banner stating that his latest tweet violated Twitter’s rules. This tweet has not been seen.
Ever since Musk took ownership of Twitter in October, the company has been rocked by changing rules and layoffs. In December, Twitter suddenly suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who covered Musk and his takeover of the company.
Musk said it was because he “doxxed” his “real-time” location by providing links to publicly available information about the location of his private jet. The next day, he announced that the accounts would be reinstated, citing the results of a Twitter poll in which he asked people to vote on whether the accounts should be reinstated.
It is unclear if Musk was involved in the latter incident.
Read the original article in Business Insider
