BERLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) – The German Foreign Office tweeted screenshots on Friday of the accounts of journalists suspended by Twitter, telling the social media platform that suspending their accounts was unacceptable, while a senior government official threatened to leave Twitter.
“Press freedom cannot be switched on and off on a whim,” the ministry wrote on its official Twitter account. “The journalists below can no longer follow us, comment and criticise. We have a problem with that, @Twitter.”
Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who had posted about its new owner Elon Musk. The German government has said it is reviewing its use of the platform in the light of changes to its moderation policy introduced by the Tesla mogul.
“Arbitrary locking of journalists’ accounts is unacceptable,” added deputy government spokesperson Wolfgang Buechner in another Tweet.
“If this continues, I will leave this platform,” he added, posting a link to the government’s official account on open-source, decentralised rival Mastodon.
Reporting by Thomas Escritt
Editing by Paul Carrel, Rachel More
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