{"id":23607,"date":"2022-12-15T03:01:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T03:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/15\/twitter-suspends-account-that-monitored-elon-musks-jet\/"},"modified":"2022-12-15T03:01:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T03:01:40","slug":"twitter-suspends-account-that-monitored-elon-musks-jet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/15\/twitter-suspends-account-that-monitored-elon-musks-jet\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter suspends account that monitored Elon Musk’s jet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Twitter suspended the account run by a college student that tracked the whereabouts of Elon Musk\u2019s private jet, despite the chief executive of the social media platform previously saying he wouldn\u2019t suspend the account. <\/p>\n

For a few hours Wednesday afternoon, Twitter restored the account, saying it had adopted new rules to prevent accounts from tracking anyone in real time. But then, without explanation, Twitter again suspended the account that goes by @ElonJet.<\/p>\n

The saga took another turn Wednesday afternoon when the company also suspended the personal Twitter account of the student, according to the user\u2019s profile. <\/p>\n

Neither Twitter nor the owner of the @ElonJet account, Jack Sweeney, immediately responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Musk commented in a Tweet on Wednesday afternoon that the @Elonjet account made it easier for people to stalk his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cReal-time posting of someone else\u2019s location violates doxxing policy, but delayed posting of locations are ok,\u201d Musk wrote in his Tweet.<\/a> He said Twitter would update its rules to reflect this new policy but did not elaborate on how that would look. <\/p>\n

An official Twitter Safety account said that its updated policy was meant to address \u201can increased risk of physical harm\u201d from sharing an individual\u2019s location. <\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward, we\u2019ll remove Tweets that share this information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else\u2019s live location will be suspended,\u201d Twitter said. <\/p>\n

Users can still share their own live location on Twitter, and accounts dedicated to sharing historical or not same-day locations are also allowed under the new policy, according to the social media company.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, tweeted Wednesday morning<\/a><\/u> from his personal account, \u201cwell it appears @ElonJet is suspended.\u201d Sweeney also shared a screenshot of a notice<\/a><\/u> saying the ban was permanent.<\/p>\n

The account was closed down, reactivated and then suspended again, despite Musk\u2019s comments in a tweet last month that he would not interfere with it because of his stance against censorship.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,\u201d Musk said in the Nov. 6<\/a> tweet<\/u>. A note below the tweet offered readers context that the ElonJet account \u201cis currently banned,\u201d and that it tracked the jet using publicly available data.<\/p>\n

Twitter went beyond closing the @Elonjet account Wednesday afternoon by suspending Sweeney\u2019s personal account, @JxckSweeney<\/a>. A similar note said it violated Twitter\u2019s rules. <\/p>\n

According to a Tweet posted Wednesday by a New York Times reporter<\/a>, Sweeney said he had a total of about 30 accounts canceled, and that his own personal account was suspended, according to Twitter, because he violated the platform\u2019s rules against \u201cplatform manipulation and spam.\u201d <\/p>\n

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday,<\/a><\/u> Sweeney said it was unclear to him why the account was banned and that he was caught by surprise because of Musk\u2019s previous comments embracing free speech. Sweeney called it \u201cbad publicity for Musk,\u201d and said people \u201care going to say [Musk is] a hypocrite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just shows they can play the rules how they want,\u201d Sweeney told the Journal. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, Sweeney tweeted on his personal account<\/a><\/u> that an anonymous Twitter employee informed him that Twitter was limiting his account\u2019s visibility. But by Monday, Sweeney tweeted<\/a><\/u> that the restrictions appeared to have been lifted.<\/p>\n

Sweeney told the New York Times in February<\/a><\/u> that he created an algorithm and a bot using publicly available data from Musk\u2019s plane\u2019s transponders, which includes the aircraft\u2019s altitude, latitude and longitude, and that he had been tracking Musk\u2019s jet since June 2020.<\/p>\n

Sweeney also told the newspaper that Musk sent him a private message in November 2021 asking him to deactivate the account for security reasons, even offering him $5,000 to do so. Sweeney said he made a counteroffer to up the price to $50,000 or a Tesla, then later asked for an internship instead. The conversation eventually went dark Jan. 23, he said.<\/p>\n

Sweeney \u2014 who has also used public data to track the movements of musician Drake, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates \u2014 tweeted Wednesday<\/a><\/u> morning that he would continue keeping tabs on Musk\u2019s travels on other platforms, including<\/a><\/u> Instagram, Facebook and Mastodon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n