Elon Musk’s Jet Tracking Bot Suspended On Twitter

(CTN NEWS) – On Wednesday, Twitter Inc suspended a bot account that tracked its owner’s private jet, according to the account’s operator Jack Sweeney.

Using freely available information, the Twitter account monitored the movements of Musk’s private aircraft.

Sweeney’s account was also suspended later in the day.

In a tweet from November, Musk claimed that, despite the clear risk to his safety, his commitment to free expression “extends even to not blocking the account tracking my plane.”

My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022

In reaction to a tweet regarding the suspension, Musk stated on Wednesday that “real-time sharing of another person’s location is against the doxxing policy but delayed posting of locations is acceptable.”

‘Doxxing’ publicly discloses private information that could be used to identify a person or group, such as a home address or phone number.

Sweeney, a 20-year-old University of Central Florida student who also runs similar bot accounts tracking Musk’s jet on Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram, tweeted on Saturday that Ella Irwin.

Twt’s vice president of trust and safety had asked that the account be filtered and made less obvious to users.

Sweeney also operates similar bot accounts tracking Musk’s jet on Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram.

Real-time posting of someone else’s location violates doxxing policy, but delayed posting of locations are ok

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2022

Sweeney or Twitter did not immediately answer requests for comment from Reuters.

As a supporter of Tesla and SpaceX, Sweeney claimed that he initially developed the Musk jet tracker “because I was interested in him.”

In prior appearances with the media, Sweeney claimed he declined Musk’s offer of $5,000 in 2021 to terminate the bot account.

Sweeney stated that he believes his exclusion was motivated by retaliation for the revelations.

Musk has previously criticized the filtering method, known as “shadowbanning,” and claimed that Twitter’s former leadership improperly employed it to stifle right-wing accounts.

THREAD: 1/X

Let's examine an under-discussed reason Twitter's “Visibility Filtering” method of censorship, more commonly known as shadowbanning, as revealed by the #TwitterFiles was, and potentially still is, so damaging.

— The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) December 10, 2022

He claimed that while the new Twt will still limit the reach of derogatory or hostile tweets, it will do it more openly.

Twit accounts that followed the private jets of billionaire computer titans Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have been shut down.

RELATED CTN NEWS:

Windows 11 Gets a More Modern OneDrive App