Elon Musk claims he is suing the owner of a Twitter account that tracks his private jet because he believes it put his son in danger, as reported by BBC.
Suspending Twitter account
The @ElonJet account, which has more than half a million followers, was suspended on Wednesday.
Its owner Jack Sweeney, 20, used publicly available flight-tracking information to tweet every time Mr Musk’s jet took off and landed.
Mr Musk says legal action is now being taken against Mr Sweeney and others.
“Last night, car carrying [his son] lil X in LA was followed by a crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving and climbed onto hood,” he tweeted.
He added that any account revealing people’s real-time locations will be suspended “as it is a physical safety violation”.
Mr Sweeney denied the incident was related to his account when asked by the BBC.
Permanent ban?
It happens after he revealed the suspension of the profile on his own Twitter account on Wednesday.
Mr. Sweeney’s account appears to have been reinstated that evening. “Yes, I’m back,” he tweeted. It was again classified as suspended a short while afterwards. Additionally, his personal account @JxckSweeney has been blocked.
A screenshot of a message from Twitter stating that it had performed a “careful assessment” and chosen to permanently ban the account for breaking its rules was shared by Mr. Sweeney, a college student in the state of Florida, with CNN.
The student is in control of other additional accounts that monitor the private flights of affluent Americans, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta.
On Wednesday afternoon, many of those accounts—including one tracking planes connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin and another keeping an eye on celebrity jets—appeared to have been suspended from Twitter as well.
The @ElonJet account had long been an irritant for Mr. Musk, who allegedly once paid Mr. Sweeney $5,000 to have it deleted.
Violating someone’s safety
Mr. Musk ultimately told Mr. Sweeney that paying to have the account closed did not feel right, according to Mr. Sweeney’s statements to US media outlets.
And a month ago, Mr. Musk promised to continue operating it despite the fact that it posed a “direct personal safety risk.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Musk tweeted on Wednesday night: “Any account that doxxes someone’s current location will be suspended because it violates their physical safety. Links to websites that provide real-time location data are one example of this.”
You may not publish or upload other people’s private information without their express knowledge and approval, according to a revised media policy posted on Twitter by the Help Center.
Changed procedures
Mr Musk has changed Twitter’s moderation procedures in a number of ways since becoming the reins of the company.
A few previously prohibited accounts have been reinstated by him, including the profile of former US President Donald Trump, which was prohibited following the uprising at the US Capitol on January 6.
According to the New York Times, the Tesla CEO has reduced Twitter’s workforce and ceased paying rent for parts of the company’s offices, including its San Francisco headquarters.
Investors have questioned whether his recent acquisition of Twitter has caused him to focus less on his electric vehicle company.
He sold a further 22 million shares in the company this week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for $3.58 billion (£2.9 billion).
With this sale, Mr Musk has now sold roughly $40 billion worth of Tesla stock in the previous year.
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Source: BBC
