Elon Musk suspends Twitter account that tracked his private jet; seeks legal action

Twitter CEO Elon Musk, on December 14, introduced a big change to the company’s policy after he said that he will be seeking legal action against an account that monitored and uploaded the tracking information of his private airplane. Arguing that doing so posed a threat to his son’s safety, Musk suspended an account named ElonJet, which had over half a million followers prior to the suspension and was operated by 20-year-old Jack Sweeney, who used easily accessible flight-tracking data on the internet to inform the takeoff and landing of Musk’s jet.

"Last night, car carrying [his son] lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving and climbed onto hood," Musk said in a tweet, adding that “Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organisations who supported harm to my family.” 

After getting suspended, Sweeney’s handle briefly reappeared, to which he tweeted “Yes I am back!”, before getting listed as suspended again, according to BBC. Furthermore, the 20-year-old’s personal account on the platform has also been frozen. Sweeney, who is a student at a college in Florida, shared a screenshot of Twitter with CNN stating that it had conducted a "careful review" and had arrived at the decision to ban the account forever for violating the social networking company’s guidelines. 

Multiple accounts appeared to get suspended after the debacle

Apart from tracking the flight details of Musk, Sweeney also operates other accounts that track the private jets of prominent American businessmen including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates. However, Sweeney’s account wasn’t the only one to be suspended following the debacle.

Several similar accounts, including one which tracked aircraft related to Russian President Vladimir Putin, also seemed to get suspended. "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,” Musk clarified in a separate tweet.

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