Elon Musk’s Twitter wants the reporter to remove his tweet – but he’s not backing down

CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan, one of several journalists suspended from Twitter earlier this week, said he would not give in to demands from Elon Musk’s social media platform to delete a tweet that allegedly violated the “Rules against posting private information”.

O’Sullivan, a technology correspondent for CNN, told host Fredericka Whitfield he had to agree to an action “at the behest of the billionaire” and remove a tweet reporting on the since-banned — but not directly linking to @ElonJet- Account that shared publicly available data on Musk’s private jet flights. (You can see his comments on the network below).

O’Sullivan – whose tweets are now visible following his “reinstatement” – told Whitfield he could tweet again if he deleted his tweet from the @ElonJet account, which he has no intention of doing.

“There is an opportunity to appeal. So I’ll do that and we’ll see what happens…” said O’Sullivan, who added that he believes the Washington Post’s Drew Harwell will appeal a tweet that Twitter said broke its rules “violated”.

“…Well, we’ll see what happens. It’s all going to be a little absurd,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan later added that the bans — along with Twitter’s request for accounts to either remove tweets or appeal violations reported by the platform to retweet — “could potentially have a chilling effect” on those who report on Musk.

You can listen to more of O’Sullivan’s comments on CNN below.