Elon Musk hints why Twitter account that followed his private jet was suspended
Rachel Lang
Featured Image Credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy. ElonJet/Twitter.
Elon Musk has alluded to the reason why Twitter suspended the account that tracked the movements of his private jet.
Jack Sweeney's account, called @ElonJet, used publicly available information to chart where and when the tech billionaire's plane would go.
The Twitter head honcho has previously hit out against the account and followers were shocked when they saw it had been officially suspended.
The move came days after 20-year-old Jack claimed his account had been 'shadow-banned'.
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However, the account that tracks Musk's movements appears to have had its suspension lifted, but Sweeney's personal Twitter still seems to be suspended.
A person on Twitter praised Musk for axing the @ElonJet account, saying: "What Jack was sharing at @elonjet & on his own @ made it 1000 times easier for [nut]jobs to know ahead of time what airport or city @elonmusk & his family would be at."
Musk replied to the comment with: "Real-time posting of someone else’s location violates doxxing policy, but delayed posting of locations are ok."
Real-time posting of someone else’s location violates doxxing policy, but delayed posting of locations are ok
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2022
When Musk initially hinted he was planning to buy the social media platform, Sweeney speculated he would cop a ban from Twitter.
The 20-year-old lashed out at Musk for the temporary suspension.
"This is insane, my phone's going f**king nuts,' Sweeney told The New York Post. "He really is asking for it because it's just going to get worse in the news. [Musk is] going to be called a full-on hypocrite."
Sweeney was asked if he thought Musk is a 'full-on hypocrite'.
He replied: "Yeah, it would seem so."
Sweeney's sledge comes more than a month after Musk vowed he would not suspend the Twitter account that tracked his jet usage.
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
"My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk," Musk wrote on November 7.
Social media has been conflicted in the wake of Sweeney's suspension.
One user said: "But you promised! And he claims that it's platform manipulation."
Another added: "Yeah, this was a huge security issue. It’s important that you did this."
Others pointed out Sweeney was just using data that anyone could access.
hour? we need some well defined rules
— ElonJet (@ElonJet) December 14, 2022
One person tweeted: "The information is publicly available already so it isn't doxxing."
Another said: "[But] the flight data that was being used was delayed and not real-time information."
The now-unsuspended account, @ElonJet, has since tweeted to ask what sort of time delay would get around Musk's anti-doxxing rules.
"Wait Hello? How long does delay mean @elonmusk," the tweet read.
At the time of writing, there's been no response from Musk.