Taylor Lorenz suspended from Twitter just after tweeting at Elon Musk seeking comment for a story

Washington Post tech culture writer Taylor Lorenz has been permanently suspended from Twitter amid the company’s owner Elon Musk’s ongoing purge of journalists from the platform.

Her removal from Twitter comes just after the tech giant announced new policies on doxing, something Lorenz has been accused of in the past.

Shortly after Lorenz’s suspension was confirmed, the former New York Times journalist posted a video on TikTok where she could be seen in a formal dress, grinning from ear to ear, confirming to the world that she was banned.

Lorenz, who says in the clip that he is with the Times Ryan Mac, who was also suspended, takes the opportunity to promote his other social networks and proclaims that he did not violate any Twitter rules.

The reporter adds that hours before her suspension, she contacted Musk to comment on a story.

According to Lorenz’s Twitter account landing page, his account was suspended for “violating Twitter rules,” but the disclaimer doesn’t offer any specific information.

The new move comes just after Musk reinstated the accounts of several journalists he had banned for allegedly manipulating the movements of his private jet.

Following his suspension, Lorenz also blogged about his substack page in which he said he was unable to log into his account shortly after reaching out to Twitter owner Elon Musk for a story.

Lorenz said: ‘I only had three live tweets on my account when it was banned. Two were promoting my social media profiles on other platforms and one was the tweet below where I asked Musk to comment.

She had written to Musk: ‘Hi Elon, Drew Harwell and I sent you a couple of emails about this. We have learned some information that we would like to share and discuss with you. We are taking this very seriously and want to make sure this is done the right way, thank you.

As of writing, Harwell’s account remains active.

The tweet that apparently broke the camel’s back, Lorenz asked Musk to comment on a story hours before his suspension

In April, the Washington Post journalist came under fire from conservative media outlets after she published an exposé on Chaya Raichik, the Orthodox Jewish mastermind behind the successful Libs of TikTok Twitter account.

Lorenz went on to say: ‘When I went to log in and see if he had responded to our query, I was suspended. I did not receive any communication from the company as to why I was suspended or what terms I violated.’

She added: “Never in my 13-year social media career have I received a single violation of the terms of service or community guidelines, for my personal account or any account I’ve managed.”

“Twitter has served as an essential source of real-time news and played a crucial role in the world of journalism, but Musk’s arbitrary suspensions of journalists reporting on him should concern anyone who values ​​free speech,” he continued. Lorenz.

In April, the Washington Post journalist came under fire from conservative media outlets after she published an exposé on Chaya Raichik, the Orthodox Jewish mastermind behind the successful Libs of TikTok Twitter account.

Taylor Lorenz, the Washington Post’s ‘Internet culture’ columnist, had expressed concern about the recent suspensions of journalists on Twitter.

The Libs of TikTok account tweeted about the video of Lorenz announcing his suspension, saying: “Amazing to see these ‘journalists’ in utter shock at finally being held to the same standard as everyone else. They are so used to living with a different set of rules.

Taking to TikTok, talent scout Ariadna Jacob tweeted screenshots of an interaction she had with Lorenz in which Jacob accused the journalist of misleading her in a 2020 New York Times article and publicly revealing her address.

Musk responded to the tweet by saying, “Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated in the future.”

Following suspensions of journalists including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac and Mashable’s Matt Binder, Lorenz expressed anger over the decision.

She tweeted: ‘It’s very shady. I don’t understand how news organizations are going to continue to use this platform if they are censoring journalists.’

Lorenz continued to post links to his other social media accounts.

Last month, Lorenz came under fire for a tweet she sent criticizing her former New York Times colleague, Bari Weiss.

Weiss was one of the journalists commissioned by Elon Musk to publish the Twitter files, exposing the company’s secrets regarding the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story and other important issues.

Tweeting a story about Weiss starting a new media company called Free Press, Lorenz wrote: “Remarkable what is being framed as a ‘new media company.’ If you start off rich, have a rich husband, rich friends, follow no ethical journalistic rules, and focus your content solely on serving the interests of extremely powerful rich people, you can go far!’

Lorenz wrote on his Substack page: “Never in my 13-year social media career have I received a single violation of the terms of service or community guidelines, for my personal account or any account I’ve managed.”

Also in November, Lorenz made headlines for criticizing his own newspaper’s reporting on China and his opposition to the country’s Covid lockdowns.

She was responding to an article tweeted by the official Post account about China’s record number of coronavirus cases, pointing out how only a small proportion of its billion-strong population is vaccinated.

‘There is no lasting ‘natural immunity’ to COVID. You can get covid over and over and over again because there are so many strains that are constantly evolving and antibodies are waning. Furthermore, choosing not to kill millions of vulnerable people (as the US is doing) is not a “critical flaw,” Lorenz wrote.

Twitter users were appalled that Lorenz was apparently defending the authoritarian country’s lockdowns and implicit human rights violations, with one user accusing her of “spreading misinformation” and saying her editors were unlikely to sanction her for any controversy. would generate more visits to the Post’s website.

Lorenz later attempted to clarify his earlier tweet by suddenly praising the Post’s reporting, adding that the article contained “a lot more nuance by the way.”

There were also very few direct responses to Lorenz’s original tweet because her Twitter settings don’t allow the right of reply unless she directly follows it.

“A coronavirus outbreak poised to be the largest of the pandemic in China has exposed a critical flaw in Beijing’s ‘covid zero’ strategy: a large population with no natural immunity,” the post said.