Elon Musk purchased Twitter and made it his goal to turn the platform into a free speech haven.
And in the service of that mission, he vowed to not ban an account focused on tracking his plane.
In a Nov. 6 tweet, Musk wrote, “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.”
However, on Wednesday, the account with the handle @ElonJet with over 500,000 followers was suspended.
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) December 14, 2022
The account was then briefly restored only to be suspended again.
In a tweet on Wednesday night, Musk wrote, “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.”
“Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok,” he added.
Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
The billionaire appeared to blame the account for an incident involving one of his children. He explained a car carrying his child l was “followed by [a] crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving [and] climbed onto hood.”
Musk shared legal action is being taken against Jack Sweeney, the 20-year-old owner of the account, 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
The Washington Post notes Sweeney started the account in 2020 and has been using publicly available air travel data to track Musk’s private jet. The data was only focused on Musk, not his family, and did not extend beyond airport and flight information.
Sweeney apparently believed it would be an interesting way to see how Musk runs his businesses.
“I mean, this looks horrible. [Musk] literally said he was keeping my account up for free speech,” he told The Post.
He added, “He’s trying to bring the company to profitability, and this is the last thing he needs.”
Twitter was not Sweeney’s only platform. He is also on former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform where he has just over 13,000 followers.