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

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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 This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info,” he wrote on Twitter, after the initial ban had been revoked and the new rules instituted.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.