Twitter has blacklisted the account that published public information about the movement of Elon Musk’s private jet, claiming it violates the site’s rules. Elon Musk had previously called the account “free speech.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter has suspended the account @ElonJet which was created by Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, to use public data from plane transponders that log longitude, latitude, and altitude to track the flight path of Elon Musk’s private jet.
Elon Musk (Win McNamee/Getty Images; BNN)
Sweeney confirmed the suspension of the account in a tweet from his personal account — which has now also been suspended — stating: “Well it appears @ElonJet is suspended.”
This move comes as a surprise given Musk’s previous statements. In a tweet just last month, Musk stated: “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.” It appears that Musk’s opinion has changed.
Sweeney himself said he was surprised by the suspension due to Musk’s previous statements and the sudden change will reflect poorly on Musk’s alleged commitment to free speech. “They are going to say he’s a hypocrite,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney said that he was not made aware of why his account was suspended. “It just shows they can play the rules how they want,” Sweeney said.
Musk claimed in a tweet that a “crazy stalker” blocked a car his child was in thinking it was Musk’s car and climbed onto the hood. He added that as a result, he’s taking legal action against Sweeney and “organizations who supported harm to my family.”
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.
Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Sweeney ran a number of accounts that tracked jet movements, including planes owned by Russian oligarchs and an aircraft associated with the Russian president Vladimir Putin. He also ran an account called @CelebJets tracking various celebrity jets. All of the accounts have been suspended, although remained active for some time after the banning of the @ElonJet account.
Sweeney said that he plans to continue tracking Musk’s jet on Instagram, Facebook, and Telegram and will launch a similar account on the social media site Mastodon. However, it is reported by the Verge that Twitter is now banning links to other websites featuring the jet tracker:
Twitter has now blocked the ability to post a link to the ElonJet Instagram account. pic.twitter.com/qNEcn6uVDF
— Tony Webster (@webster) December 14, 2022
The @ElonJet account has been an annoyance to Musk for some time. Musk asked Sweeney to delete the account in November 2021. Sweeney said that Musk offered him $5,000 to close the account and provided screenshots of the conversation with Musk.
Sweeney countered and asked for $50,000 and later an internship with Musk. Musk blocked him on social media in January, according to Sweeney.
On Saturday, Sweeney said in a tweet that a Twitter employee told him that the company had been restricting the visibility of the @ElonJet account.
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Sweeney said “I gotta be careful. I mean, I don’t know what’s going on.” He said that he was baffled by the suggestion that the @ElonJet account could be a threat to Musk or his family, especially given that it uses public information.
“I never meant for any intent of like, any harm or anything,” Sweeney said. “And I don’t think there’s that much of a risk of posting data that’s already there.”
Read more at the Wall Street Journal here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
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