Elon Musk reinstates Twitter Spaces after shutting it down for a day

Elon Musk announced that Twitter Spaces was back on Friday after shutting it down for a day. At the time, he gave the reason behind shutting it down as Twitter fixing a “legacy” bug.

“Spaces is back,” he tweeted, which was followed by another tweet, in response to a user who asked him if he would be interested in doing a podcast. He wrote, “Let’s do one next week and maybe throw in a live spaces discussion.”

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Just hours before, he had reassured people that Twitter Spaces would be back after people started to speculate why it was taken down and when it will be back. “Bug fix is almost done. Spaces probably back by tonight,” he wrote in a tweet. 

Musk seems to be referring to the bug that allowed the journalists he had previously banned from Twitter to be able to tune in to a Space, titled “#saveryanmac #macpack.”

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The new Twitter head also attended the discussion only to abruptly leave the session after he was called out by journalist Drew Harrell, whom Musk had apparently banned for lying about posting links to his private information.

Twitter has suspended the accounts of more than a half-dozen journalists who were regularly reporting updates about Twitter and Musk. Reporters for the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post were among those locked out of their accounts on the platform.

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Some of the now-banned journalists had been tweeting about Twitter shutting down an @ElonJet account that tracked flights of the billionaire’s private jet.

The United Nations and the European Union have condemned Twitter’s decision to suspend these journalists. Melissa Fleming, the UN’s under-secretary-general for global communications, said she was “deeply disturbed” by reports that journalists were being “arbitrarily” suspended from Twitter.

“Media freedom is not a toy,” she said. “A free press is the cornerstone of democratic societies and a key tool in the fight against harmful disinformation.”

EU commissioner Vera Jourova has threatened Twitter with sanctions under Europe’s new Digital Services Act which requires “the respect of media freedom and fundament rights”. “Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,” she added.