Elon Musk’s Twitter Suspends Controversial Washington Post Journalist Taylor Lorenz

Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz in Anaheim, Calif., on July 13, 2019. Jerod Harris/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s Twitter on Saturday evening suspended controversial Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz after he reinstated several other corporate news reporters for allegedly violating the company’s policy against “doxxing.”

On Substack, Lorenz claimed that Musk, who took over Twitter in October, personally suspended her account. “Earlier tonight, Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account,” Lorenz wrote in a brief post on the platform.

Lorenz claimed that she was working alongside Drew Harrell, who was suspended and reinstated on Twitter, and they were “working on a story involving Musk and were hoping to get [a] comment from him.”

“When I went to log in and see if he had responded to our query, I was suspended,” Lorenz stated. “I received zero communication from the company on why I was suspended or what terms I violated.”

Lorenz, a Washington Post technology reporter, has drawn controversy on Twitter after she published an article revealing the identity of the individual behind the Libs of TikTok Twitter account. In 2020, Lorenz allegedly tried to dig up dirt on former White House advisor Kellyanne Conway by repeatedly asking her 15-year-old daughter for comment without her parents’ permission, drawing condemnation from anti-Trump critic George Conway.

More recently, she drew criticism last month for appearing to endorse the Chinese regime’s draconian “zero COVID” lockdown and testing policies because, according to her, it’s never possible to develop a natural immunity to the virus—despite there being studies showing otherwise. Lorenz also falsely accused tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen of “using the r-slur,” and she later admitted she made a mistake.

Before Musk took over, Twitter’s previous management under former CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal would often suspend accounts without any forewarning or communication about why. For example, messenger RNA technology contributor and COVID-19 vaccine critic Dr. Robert Malone told The Epoch Times months ago that when his account was suspended, Twitter did not inform him ahead of time.

Lorenz also wrote: “I have been on Twitter since 2010 and have run Twitter account [sic] for major media brands including Verizon, Wordpress, The Daily Mail, People magazine, The Hill, and dozens more ... never once in my 13-year career in social media have I received a single terms of service or community guidelines violation, for my personal account or any account that I’ve run.”

Other Details

It’s not clear exactly why Twitter banned Lorenz’s account, but a comment from Musk on Friday may suggest the reason. Ariadna Jacob, the subject of a critical report by Lorenz and who filed a defamation lawsuit against her, stated that Lorenz doxxed her in an article she published for the New York Times.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk speaks during the live-streamed unveiling of the Tesla Semi electric truck in Nev. on Dec. 1, 2022. Tesla/Handout via Reuters

“Such shameful behavior will not be tolerated going forward,” Musk wrote in reply. That came a day before Lorenz’s suspension.

Jacob filed a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit alleging a New York Times article written by Lorenz contained false and disparaging statements about her. Those allegedly “defamatory statements that devastated Jacob’s business and reputation,” said a news release from a law firm representing her. “Lorenz and the Times published their defamatory statements about the plaintiffs even though they had been provided with evidence contradicting the false statements prior to the publishing of the article.”

It was unclear if Lorenz’s account would be permanently suspended. The Epoch Times has contacted Twitter for comment, and Musk has not issued any tweets on her suspension.

Also Suspended

Legacy news reporters such as Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America, and independent video-sharer and reporter Aaron Rupar were suspended last week for, according to Musk, violating Twitter’s policy around doxxing. Former ESPN and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was also suspended around the same time.

Musk accused the journalists suspended last week of sharing private information about his location. It came as he said that an individual stalked a car that his son was traveling in. The Los Angeles Police Department told news outlets last Thursday that no police reports were filed in connection to the incident.

Around the same time, Musk posted a poll asking whether those individuals’ accounts should be reinstated on the platform. The majority of the users who responded favored restoring their accounts, and Musk said he would honor the result.

But he noted in a post that “the journalists were aware of the violent stalker and yet still doxxed the real-time location of my family. Turns out that’s a criminal offense.”