“You’re a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one. I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you,” AOC said.
In an ironic statement, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Elon Musk to get over his fears of being stalked and harassed in public and to "lay off the proto fascism" in response to him temporarily suspending people who doxxed his real-time location information on the platform.
On Thursday, several accounts of journalists working at multiple left-wing outlets were suspended, including Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of Washington Post, Ryan Mac of New York Times, and Aaron Rupar. All had recently published links to a "jet tracker" that shared live updates on the location of Musk's private plane, in violation of the newly-expanded anti-doxxing rules.
https://rumble.com/embed/v1y3j5i/?pub=2n05b
When users began to point out the suspensions, Musk made it clear that anyone – including journalists – who post his "exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, [are] in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service."
"Same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else," Musk said.
This, apparently, was too harsh of a line to draw for New York Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.
"You're a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one. I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you," she said in a quote tweet.
"Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone," she added.
"You first lol," the Twitter owner replied.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603613149168472064
In 2012, Tyler, The Creator posted "How The F*ck Is Cyber Bullying Real... Just Walk Away From The Screen... Close Your Eyes..." which perhaps aptly applies.
https://twitter.com/BarrettWilson6/status/1603695904732504064?s=20&t=jpfIAmfBw1d42HPCCuDIaQ
In the past, Ocasio-Cortez has seemed to take personal safety to another degree. In October, the Democratic representative threatened to assault conservative comedian Alex Stein after he told her she was his "favorite big booty Latina" on the steps of the US Capitol.
In the video of the altercation, recorded by Stein, the jokester tells Ocasio-Cortez, "AOC! My favorite big booty Latina. I love you AOC, you're my favorite."
"She wants to kill babies, but she's still beautiful," he continued. "You look very beautiful in that dress. You look very sexy. Look at that booty on AOC! That's my favorite big booty Latina."
At that point, Ocasio-Cortez walked up to Stein and said, "Hey guys, why don't you do a little selfie," and posed with a peace sign.
At no point did Stein threaten or touch her, but she later posted that she wanted to "deck" him.
According to a NewsWars report, the congresswoman posted photo of Stein to Twitter after the encounter, claiming that he said "look at your juicy a**," which the footage of the encounter does not corroborate.
She took this first statement down, then replaced it with a claim that she wanted to physically assault the comedian over his words.
"I posted about a deeply disgusting incident that happened today on the Capitol steps, but took it down [because] it's clearly someone seeking extremist fame," the lawmaker said. "It's just a bummer to work in an institution that openly allowed this, but talking about it only invites more. Just really sad."
"I was actually walking over to deck him because if no one will protect us then I'll do it myself but I needed to catch a vote more than a case today," she added, posting the video of her appearing to pose for a selfie, not "deck" anyone.
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1547397629260226560
The serious steps Musk is taking to combat doxxing on the platform comes after having a stalking scare Tuesday night, when a car carrying his young son was "followed by [a] crazy stalker" who later blocked the car from moving and climbed onto the hood.
"Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family," Musk said, referring to the 20-year-old behind the now-suspended jet-tracker account; Jack Sweeney.
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The Tesla and SpaceX founder also shared a video of his alleged stalker, a man dressed in a black hoodie and mask.
In a Thursday night Twitter Space, Musk cleared the air about the doxxing and suspensions.
"As I'm sure everyone who's been doxxed would agree, drawing real-time information about someone's location is inappropriate… and there is not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists… and regular people," Musk said in a Thursday Twitter space.
"Everyone's going to be treated the same. You're not special because you're a journalist, you're a citizen. So, no special treatment. If you doxx, you get suspended. End of story."
