Elon Musk suspends Twitter account tracking his private jet, threatens legal action
By Aditi T | First Published Dec 15, 2022, 11:53 AM ISTTwitter has suspended the account of Elon Jet, a user closely following Elon Musk's movements. Musk suspended the account after tweeting that his free speech extended to accounts tracking his movements, even if it posed a 'direct personal safety risk.'
A Twitter account with the handle @ElonJet, with more than half a million followers, tracking billionaire Elon Musk's private jet in real time was suspended on Wednesday. The Tesla owner has announced legal action against the account owner as it puts his son at risk.
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As per reports, account owner Jack Sweeney (20) used publicly available flight-tracking data to tweet every time Musk's plane took off and landed.
Taking to Twitter, Musk announced that legal action had been initiated against Sweeney and others. "Last night, a crazy stalker (thinking it was me) followed a car carrying (his son) Lil X in LA, who later blocked the car from moving and climbed onto the hood," he tweeted.
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Additionally, Musk said that any account revealing people's real-time locations would be suspended 'as it is a physical safety violation.'
Sweeney has since denied that the incident was related to his account, though he has confirmed that his Twitter account has been suspended.
Sweeney, a college student in Florida, sent CNN a screenshot of a Twitter message saying that the social media company had conducted a 'careful review' and had decided to permanently ban the account for violating Twitter's rules.
Also, Sweeney runs a dozen of other accounts that track private flights to several rich Americans, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta Cheif Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.
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Many of those accounts, including one tracking aircraft associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and another tracking celebrity jets, appeared to be suspended on Twitter as well on Wednesday afternoon.
Previously, Musk has taken issue with the @ElonJet account. He once promised Sweeney a huge sum of 5000 dollars to delete the information; however, he later retracted his offer as it did not feel right to pay to have the account shut down.
Most recently, Musk pledged to keep it running despite the fact that it posed a 'direct personal safety risk' a month ago.
On Wednesday eveningMusk, tweeted, "Any account that doxxes anyone's real-time location information will be suspended as it's a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to websites that provide real-time location information."
The Twitter Help Center has tweeted an updated media policy, which says, 'You may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission.'
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