Elon Musk taking legal action over Twitter account that tracks his jet
Billionaire Elon Musk has said he will take legal action against the Twitter user @ElonJet – the Twitter account that tracks his private jet use. Musk says the account puts his son at risk.
The account has more than half a million followers and was suspended on Wednesday.
The account is owned by Jack Sweeney, 20, who uses publicly available flight-tracking information to tweet every time Musk’s jet took off and landed.
The new Twitter boss Elon Musk has said legal action will be taken against Mr Sweeney and others.
“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,” he tweeted.
Elon – who recently lost his title as world’s richest man – also revealed that accounts revealing people’s real-time locations will be suspended “as it is a physical safety violation.”
Who is Jack Sweeney?
Jack Sweeney is a college student in Florida, who runs many social media accounts tracking the private flights of wealthy Americans, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg.
Many of theses accounts appear to also be suspended.
Sweeney shared a screenshot with CNN of a message from Twitter saying they had conducted a “careful review” and had decided to permanently ban his account for violating Twitter’s rules.
Musk has never been a fan of the account and once reportedly offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete it. However, only a month ago, Musk had pledged to keep the account running even though it was a “direct personal safety risk.”
But Mr Musk tweeted on Wednesday evening: “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.”
Twitter’s Help Center has tweeted an updated media policy that begins: “You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission.”
Elon Musk Twitter takeover
Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44bn after many twists and turns. Since being in charge of the social media site, Musk has made some changes to its moderation practices.
Accounts that had been banned – including Donald Trump, were reinstated.
There has been the controversial blue-tick feature, which was paused a month ago following its disastrous rollout.
Critics fear Twitter under Musk will be a breeding bed of misinformation and hate.
Musk no longer world’s richest man
Bloomberg and Forbes confirmed Elon Musk lost his world’s richest man title yesterday following after a sharp drop in the value of his shares in Tesla this year.
