Security for me, censorship for thee: AOC, Musk tangle over doxing and liberal double standards

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) instigated another Twitter feud with Elon Musk Thursday night, following the platform's suspension of several liberal journalists for posting what the new owner called "assassination coordinates" after they doxed his real-time location.

The journalists in question included CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, The Intercept's Micah Lee, New York Times Tech reporter Ryan Mac, Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell, Mashable's Matt Binder, MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann and former Vox journalist Aaron Rupar. Each of them was slapped with a 7-day suspension.

"They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service," Musk tweeted.

Ocasio-Cortez argued that Musk must deal with such hassles and accept them as part of public life, before comparing his move to fascism. 

"You're a public figure," Ocasio-Cortez replied to Musk. "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. Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone."

Not only did AOC soft-pedal the severity of threats to Musk's security, but she went on to blame Musk for the increased threat level she now faces in her own life.

"As someone who has been subject to real + dangerous plots, I do get it," the self-declared socialist added. "I didn't have security and have experienced many scary incidents. In fact, many of the right-wing outlets you now elevate published photos of my home, car, etc. At a certain point you gotta disconnect."

The SpaceX founder retorted: "You First."

The controversy comes after Musk reportedly suspended an account earlier this week which tracked the movements of his private jet. "ElonJet," operated by Jack Sweeney, 20, had been using public domain data to track the movements of the mogul, listed by Forbes as the second richest person in the world. 

Musk had originally allowed the account to remain active despite potential security risks, but changed his tune after claiming his son had been physically harassed by a "crazy stalker," according to Reuters.

When Musk posted a poll last month about restoring former President Donald Trump's Twitter profile, Ocasio-Cortez did not display the same free-speech fervor. Instead, the congresswoman urged caution, invoking the threat of assassination and chaos.

"Idk man, last time [Trump] was here this platform was used to incite an insurrection, multiple people died, the Vice President of the United States was nearly assassinated," she tweeted on Nov. 18. "And hundreds were injured but I guess that's not enough for you to answer the question. Twitter poll it is."

She went on to cite the House Jan. 6 committee's findings to claim Twitter played "a critical role in the violence that day."

Just one week later, Ocasio-Cortez confided her fears for her own security to CNN's Chris Wallace. "I've felt my life has been in danger," she said, "since the moment that I won my primary election in 2018 ... It means when I wake up in the morning, I hesitate to walk my dog. It means when I come home, I have to ask my fiance to come out to where my car is to walk me to, just from my car to my front door ... There is almost a static electricity around you, and you're just always, just looking around."  

Ocasio-Cortez has voiced no objections to the long-term pre-trial detentions of hundreds of defendants imprisoned for alleged roles in the Jan. 6 swarming of the Capitol building that jeopardized the security of lawmakers.

On Thursday, Musk himself chided the left for hypocrisy when it comes to doxing and personal security.

"If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there'd be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!" he tweeted.

These headlines come amid Musk's ongoing serial release of the Twitter Files, tweet threads based on an explosive cache of internal corporate communications exposing behind-the-scenes decision-making and a pattern of anti-conservative bias — long denied by the platform — underlying the social media giant's content moderation practices.

Recently disclosed files include revelations that Twitter executives:

• suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story in the waning days of the 2020 election despite internal skepticism about the company's claim the story violated its ban on posting hacked material;
• searched for a pretext to boot Donald Trump off the platform despite internal admissions that he had not violated any of the site's terms of service.

Such revelations have reportedly triggered an investigation by the incoming House GOP majority into widespread allegations of censorship of conservative content on the platform before Musk purchased the company for $44 billion earlier this year.

Musk held a "Twitter Spaces" call on Thursday evening with a group of journalists concerned about the suspensions and warned them that in the future any and all doxing of a similar kind would result in immediate suspension.

The Tesla CEO has seemingly left the fate of the accounts in the hands of Twitter users, however, by posting a poll asking whether he should reinstate the reporters or allow the suspension to run its course.

It is unclear whether or not he will honor the results of the poll as he has in the past, but only time and more tweets will tell.