What is doxing? The meaning of the term explains how Elon Musk accuses journalists on Twitter.

The accounts of several well-known journalists who recently wrote about the new owner, Elon Musk, have been blocked on Twitter.

The billionaire accused them of treason, tweeting that the no-disclosure rules apply to everyone, including journalists.

But what is doxing? Here’s everything you need to know.

What is doxing?

Avast Academy defines doxxing as follows: “Doxxing is the publication of information about a person on the Internet without their consent. Doxxing can also mean exposing the real person behind an anonymous username and exposing their true identity online.

“Some dox attacks are based on harassment or revenge, while others target people who anonymously post bigoted comments online or are caught on camera spreading such beliefs.

“Although the concept of doxing has been around for decades, doxing is still alive and can be very dangerous. As soon as someone’s physical address, place of work, phone number, email address or any other information becomes available, they become an easy target.

“Doxing attacks range from relatively innocuous, such as email spoofing or signing up for pizza delivery, to much more dangerous, such as family or employer harassment, physical harassment, caning, identity theft, and other forms of cyberbullying.”

Is doxing illegal?

It depends on where you are, but doxing itself is not usually illegal, although the practice may include other offenses such as harassment.

Avast says: “Doxxing Necessary is not illegal as most jurisdictions do not have specific laws against doxing. Instead, the legality of doxing is decided on a case-by-case basis. While collecting or posting public information is rarely illegal, there are other crimes that doxers can be charged with. These offenses include stalking, stalking, identity theft, or incitement to violence.”

Both the state of Kentucky in the US and Hong Kong have introduced specific doxing laws.

What happened to Elon Musk?

Elon Musk accused some of the journalists he spoke to of trying to trick him into revealing his whereabouts in real time.

This came after the @elonjet Twitter account revealed the whereabouts of his personal jet, and these journalists discussed it publicly.

He has now banned her from Twitter as well as the @elonjet account for seven days, saying the rule applies to everyone on the site.

Musk, who describes himself as a total supporter of free speech, responded to a tweet about the suspension of the account: “Journalists follow the same doxing rules as everyone else,” which is a reference to Twitter’s rules that prohibit the sharing of personal information. prohibit information. called doxing.

Musk confirmed that, according to Twitter’s rules, it’s okay to report that someone, somewhere, was out of place.

Some criticize the billionaire, claiming that he forbade journalists to criticize him.

He responded to the tweet by saying, “Criticizing me all day is fine, but doxing my location in real time and endangering my family is not.”

Who got banned?

According to Reuters, one of the journalist’s accounts was blocked on Thursday. Washington Post Reporter Drew Harwell (@drewharwell), writing on the Mastodon social network, recently wrote about Musk and posted links to “public, legally obtained data.”

Twitter has also suspended the official Mastodon account (@joinmastodon), which was created as an alternative to Twitter. Mastodon was not immediately available for comment.

Sally Busby, ToHarwell’s editor-in-chief said that Musk’s suspension undermines claims that he intends to use Twitter as a platform for free speech.

However, Harwell was able to catch up with fellow journalists in a Twitter conversation late Thursday night, a conversation that Musk himself briefly interrupted.

“You, Dox, you will be suspended. End of story,” Musk said in the chat, as Harwell dismissed claims that he revealed Musk’s real-time whereabouts and said he had just posted about @elonjet.

On Wednesday, Twitter updated its policy banning the sharing of “real-time location information.”

Accounts time Reporter Ryan Mack (@rmac18), CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan (@donie) and Mashable reporter Matt Binder @MattBinder were also suspended, as was freelance journalist Aaron Rupar (@atrupar), who covers US politics.

Mac recently tweeted a series of posts about @elonjet being suspended and interviewed Jack Sweeney, an account administrator with 20 years of experience.

Speaker for New York Times called the blocking “doubtful and unfortunate”. Neither The Times nor Ryan received an explanation as to why this happened. We hope that all journalist accounts will be restored and Twitter will provide a satisfactory explanation for this action.”

CNN said it has asked Twitter for an explanation for the suspension and will reassess its relationship with the platform based on that response.

Other journalists were not immediately available for comment.

Additional coverage from Reuters.