An account tracking Twitter chief Elon Musk's private jet in real-time was suspended on Wednesday as the billionaire entrepreneur threatened legal action against the account's owner citing his son had been mistakenly followed by a 'crazy stalker'.
The account suspension comes just a month after Musk said his commitment to free speech extended to not banning the account.
On Wednesday, the @elonjet page showed a message that read “account suspended” as it violated the platform’s rules. Jack Sweeney, owner of the platform who also ran other Twitter accounts had been operating the account since 2020. It tracked the private jet of Mark Zuckerberg and other celebrities, according to the Bloomberg report.
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The account operated by a 20-year-old student at the University of Central Florida tracked the movements of Musk's private jet using data available in the public domain before the suspension, reported news agency Reuters. Sweeney's other accounts also remain suspended.
Twitter briefly reinstated the "bot", or automated, account before again suspending it, after saying sharing "live location information" was a violation of its policy.
Doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, Says Musk
In November, Musk advocated that his commitment to free speech "extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk".
On Wednesday, Musk said: "Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation." "Doxxing" is the public release of sensitive information identifying an individual or organization, such as a home address or phone number. "Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok," Musk said.
Sharing information in a tweet Musk said one of his sons, lil X, had been harassed and linked it to the tracking accounts.
"Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood," he said. "Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family."
Sweeney, who also operates similar bot accounts tracking Musk's jet on Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, told BuzzFeed the suspension is "a surprise to many people after he publicly said he wouldn't do it." "It just shows that they can play the rules however they want to, really, for whoever they want," he said.
On Saturday, Sweeney tweeted that Ella Irwin, Twitter's vice president of trust and safety, requested the account be filtered and less visible to users.