Twitter has taken action against two accounts linked to a frequent critic of
Tesla
and its CEO Elon Musk.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Twitter accounts of PlainSite, @plainsite, and its founder Aaron Greenspan, @aarongreenspan, were suspended, according to Greenspan and those accounts’ status pages on the social-media site. They remained unavailable Wednesday.

PlainSite is an information service that posts documents, often obtained via Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests, from federal and state courts, as well as regulators.

“I do not know what I did,” Greenspan told Barron’s, acknowledging he has been a critic of Musk in the past. Greenspan, a short seller of stocks, has also been involved in litigation with Musk, who controls Twitter as its largest investor.

The Tesla CEO, who has also headed Twitter, said in mid May that he had hired a new chief executive who would take over in about six weeks. Musk said he would serve as executive chairman and chief technology officer.

Short selling involves borrowing stock not owned and selling it in hopes of replacing the shares by buying them back at a lower price. It is a bearish bet because the short seller profits if the buyback price is lower than the initial sale price.

Short sellers typically do a lot of detailed research to identify stocks that could fall. Greenspan said FOIA requests are part of his research process, and that while he has shorted Tesla stock in the past, he isn’t short Tesla stock now.

Twitter’s email PR contact responded with a poop emoji when asked about the suspensions. The response appeared to be generated automatically. Musk didn’t immediately respond to a tweet asking him about the move. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Several behaviors can lead to a suspension, according to Twitter rules, including sharing personal information. In December, Twitter suspended an account that tracked Musk’s jet, @ElonJet, for potentially disclosing information about Musk’s whereabouts in close to real time. The account was still suspended as of Wednesday morning.

Tesla shares have been on a run lately, rising for 13 consecutive trading sessions. That is the longest winning streak for the stock ever, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Shares added 3.6% in Tuesday trading, closing at $258.71, while the
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite
rose 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]