The German Foreign Office tweeted screenshots on Friday of the accounts of journalists suspended by Twitter, warning the micro-blogging site that the ministry had a problem with moves that jeopardized press freedom.
Twitter suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who had posted about its new owner Elon Musk, prompting protests from their media organizations.
"Press freedom cannot be switched on and off on a whim," the ministry wrote on its official Twitter account. "The journalists below can no longer follow us, comment and criticize. We have a problem with that, @Twitter."
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The social media platform in the hands of Musk, who claims that he intended to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech, suspended on Thursday accounts of reporters from various publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and Voice of America.
"Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not," Musk tweeted on Thursday.
German regulators are already pushing government institutions to stop posting announcements only to privately held platforms, touting alternatives like the fledgling decentralized social media network Mastodon.
A government spokesperson later told a regular news conference that the government was monitoring developments on Twitter with growing concern.
Twitter also suspended the Mastodon network's account and attempts to link to Mastodon accounts in tweets frequently triggered error messages on Friday.
Mastodon, self-hosted social networking services platform which originated in November registered the rate of new users joining the network as high as 4,000 an hour on Friday morning, four times the rate seen over the past week. But with some 8.5 million registered users, Mastodon is still a minnow compared to Twitter with half a billion users.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also responded to questions about the journalists' suspensions, saying social media platforms had to balance the protection of users with the preservation of free speech.
The European Commission on Friday also warned Musk of the risk of potential fines and other repercussions over the latest act, with European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova saying "These are red lines," threatening Musk with sanctions.
