NBC News pulled reporters from Elon Musk/Twitter coverage earlier this month

As news organizations condemned Elon Musk’s sudden suspension of journalists from Twitter, a report emerged that earlier this month NBC News benched one of its reporters to cover the volatile billionaire and his platform.

Ben Collins, who reports on disinformation, extremism and the Internet for the network, was temporarily removed from Musk’s coverage for repeatedly tweeting about the billionaire violating social media policy, according to a person familiar with the matter from the publisher. A number of newsrooms have social media policies that prevent journalists from crossing the line and expressing their opinions on the issues they cover.

The move came before Musk’s decision to retract a half-dozen or more reports by journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and others. Some reporters linked to an @ElonJet Mastodon account that published data about Musk’s private jet movements based on publicly available information. Musk issued a policy limiting the posting of real-time tracking data and suspended @ElonJet’s account.

Collins did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Semafor first reported on NBC News’ move. However, Collins took to Twitter on Thursday evening to report the suspension of journalists from the platform.