Elon Musk left a number of his Twitter followers confused late Thursday night, when he shared a post expressing his "love" for singer Barbra Streisand.
Musk, who officially took over the platform in late October, faced fierce backlash after Twitter banned the accounts of multiple journalists who have covered him, despite the billionaire previously touting his dedication to "free speech."
Accounts belonging to Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Ryan Mac of The New York Times and independent journalists Aaron Rupar and Keith Olbermann were among many to be permanently suspended on Thursday night.
Musk later suggested in a tweet that the accounts had violated the platform's recently updated terms of service regarding "doxxing"—disclosing someone's personal details online—although it was unclear which rules had been broken.
The suspensions came one day after Twitter banned the @ElonJet account, which remains online on other platforms like Facebook and former President Donald Trump's Truth Social, and uses publicly available data to share the location of Musk's private jet.
In the midst of the spirited debate resulting from Twitter's round of account suspensions, Musk misspelled singing superstar Streisand's first name as he tweeted: "I love Barbara Streisand lol."
I love Barbara Streisand lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
What Is the Streisand Effect?
Musk's post left many Twitter users scratching their heads, while others sought to explain what the entrepreneur appeared to be alluding to.
Employing a feature where Twitter users can add context to a post, two contributors posted under Musk's tweet that he was "alluding to comparisons that are being made of Twitter banning accounts to the Streisand Effect, which is when to attempting conceal information results in further exposure of said information."
As stated by social media posts on Musk's tweet, the Streisand Effect in PR describes how fighting a perceived negative article can amplify its message.
Singer Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman for including her clifftop home in Malibu in pictures he took of the Southern California coastline in 2003 as part of a photographic project.
While her legal action was later dismissed under California law, the BBC reported how the publicity resulted in 420,000 views of the image, which had only been downloaded six times before the lawsuit—including twice by Streisand's lawyers.
Mike Masnick of the Techdirt blog coined the term the Streisand Effect in 2005.
This phenomenon has been used on Twitter to explain the disservice Musk's detractors believe he may have done to himself by drawing increased attention to his decision to go after accounts discussing his whereabouts.
The accounts banned on Thursday belonged to journalists who had all covered Musk or the ElonJet story. Critics of the billionaire and others quickly denounced the suspensions while accusing Musk of hypocrisy for targeting accounts that he did not like personally while claiming to be a champion of free speech.
In response to claims that Musk had banned the accounts of journalists who had simply criticized him, he tweeted on Thursday: "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not."
He also claimed in a separate tweet that his private jet is "actually not trackable without using non-public data."
Musk had previously said explicitly that he would allow the ElonJet account to remain on Twitter due to his "commitment to free speech." He has since stated that he will be taking "legal action" against the account's creator on Wednesday, 20-year-old college student Jack Sweeney.
"It just shows that they can form and shape the rules however they want for particular accounts, rather than be open, rather than just letting it be one set rule," Sweeney told Newsweek hours after his account was banned on Wednesday.
In an essay for Newsweek on Thursday, Sweeney wrote that "Twitter, under Musk, has unbanned a lot of controversial people. It seems to me like Musk wants anything and everything on Twitter, unless it's against him."
"I'm still a fan of Musk's ventures," Sweeney added, "but I don't know that I agree with some of the choices that he is making on Twitter now."
Newsweek reached out to Twitter for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
