The United Nations rights chief expressed relief at Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s decision to reinstate several journalists on the social media platform but said that “serious concerns remain”. “Good news that journalists are being reinstated on Twitter, but serious concerns remain,” tweeted United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk while making it clear that “Twitter has a responsibility to respect human rights”.
The decision to suspend the accounts of journalists from global publications like New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post resulted in criticism from the European Union as well as the United Nations. Musk earlier said that the accounts were suspended as they had endangered his family.
However, the billionaire decided to reinstate the accounts on Friday.
“The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now.”
Turk was not pleased with the entire process and urged Musk to “commit to making decisions based on publicly available policies that respect rights, including free speech. Nothing less.”
The controversy started when Musk said that “a crazy stalker” followed a car ferrying his children in Los Angeles and blamed people tracking his jet for the incident. Several journalists reported on the incident with mention of the tracking account and that resulted into suspension of their accounts.
The move was seen by many as an attack on press freedom and most international groups asked for the suspension to be lifted. Even the United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called it a “dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even worse”.
