Elon Musk again bans account that followed his jet and starts legal action against its creator

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 15 December 2022 13:42 GMT
Comments
Twitter Musk Europe Showdown
Twitter Musk Europe Showdown

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Elon Musk has once again banned a Twitter account that tracked his plane – and started legal action against its creator.

Mr Musk had previously suggested that the ElonJet account was a test of his commitment to free speech, which he said was so strong that he would allow the tracker to continue to post on Twitter even after he had bought it.

This week, however, the account was banned. It was then allowed back onto the platform, though Twitter announced it would be instituting new rules that meant the information could not be shared in real time.

Hours after those changes, however, the account was banned once again. On Twitter rival Mastodon, an account seemingly belonging to the creator of the ElonJet account, Jack Sweeney, said that all of his accounts had been banned from the platform, including his personal one.

The account, known as ElonJet, had previously used publicly available information to track the movements of Mr Musk’s planes. He was one of a number of celebrities monitored by similar accounts.

In a tweet posted soon after he took over Twitter, Mr Musk indicated on the site that the ElonJet account would stay live. “ My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” he wrote.

In recent days, however, the account has been hit by a number of rule changes. Mr Musk has indicated in tweets that the ban was based on the fear that the information could be used to harass him and his family.

“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,” he wrote on Twitter, after the initial ban had been revoked and the new rules instituted. “Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.”

Soon after that, however, he said that a car carrying his son had been followed by a “crazy stalker” who believed that Mr Musk was in the car. He then said in the same post that he was taking “legal action” against Mr Sweeney, who ran the ElonJet account, as well as “organisations who supported harm to my family”, who he did not name.

Mr Musk did not indicate whether he believed that the information shared through the tracking accounts had contributed to the attack. He also gave no information about what that legal action might include.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in