The accounts of CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, the New York Times’ Ryan Mac, and the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell–all journalists who have written stories critical of Elon Musk–had their Twitter accounts suspended Thursday night, sending a chill down the media responsible for cover the once-richest man in the world who now controls a popular social media outlet.

According to CNN, the accounts for others, including Aaron Rupar, a journalist who posts clips of news talk programs, were also suspended.  Rupar told CNN he received no contact from Twitter before his account was taken offline.  A report made here earlier that the account for a similar poster, Acyn, was suspended was inaccurate; he was taking a well-deserved break.

Earlier in the day, Twitter suspended the account for upstart social media platform Mastadon after the account posted that people could use it to follow ElonJet, which tracks Musk’s travels and which Musk suspended, then unsuspended, then resuspended.

UPDATE (10:00 p.m. ET) A statement from the New York Times:  “Tonight’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times’s Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate. Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”

UPDATE (11:14 p.m. ET)

Statement on tonight's suspension of CNN's @donie O'Sullivan: pic.twitter.com/TQGsysxvpf

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 16, 2022