Thursday, 15 December 2022

Elon Musk is suing a Twitter account that tracked his private jet

 



Elon Musk said he is taking legal action against the owner of a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, claiming he endangered his son.


On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the @ElonJet account, which has more than half a million followers.


The account's owner, Jack Sweeney, 20, used publicly available flight tracking information to tweet each time Musk's plane took off and landed.


Musk says legal action is underway against Sweeney and others.


"Last night, the car carrying [his son] Lil X in LA was followed by a crazed stalker (who thought it was me), who later stopped the car from moving and climbed onto the front of the car," he tweeted.


He added that any account that discloses people's real locations will be suspended "because it is a violation of physical integrity".


Asked by the BBC, Sweeney denied that what happened to Musk's son was related to his tweet.


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This comes after he confirmed on his personal Twitter account on Wednesday that his personal account had been suspended.


That evening, Sweeney's account appeared to have reactivated, and he tweeted: "Yes I'm back!" But minutes later, his account was suspended again. His other personal account, @JxckSweeney, has also been frozen.


Sweeney, a college student in Florida, shared a screenshot with CNN of a message from Twitter stating that the social media company had conducted a "careful review" and decided to permanently ban the account for violating the Twitter Rules.


Sweeney runs and oversees dozens of other accounts that track the private flights of wealthy Americans, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.


Several of those accounts — including one that tracks a plane linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and one that monitors celebrity jets — also appeared to have been suspended on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.


Musk has long feuded with @ElonJet's account and is said to have once offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete it.


Sweeney told US media that Musk eventually told him he didn't feel entitled to pay to close the account.


A month ago, Musk pledged to keep these accounts active even though they posed an "immediate risk to personal safety".


But Musk tweeted on Wednesday evening, "Any account that publishes and locates real real locations of any person will be suspended, as it is a violation of physical integrity. This includes posting links to sites that contain information about real real locations."


Twitter's help center tweeted an updated media policy, stating, "You may not post or share information of other people without their express permission and permission."


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Since assuming the helm of Twitter, Musk has made a host of changes to his account management and follow-up practices.


It also restored a group of previously banned accounts, including the personal account of former President Donald Trump, which was banned after the storming of the US Capitol on January 6.


Musk, CEO of Tesla, has also cut the social media company's staff and reportedly stopped paying rent for some of the company's offices, including the company's headquarters in San Francisco, according to The New York Times.


Investors wondered if his recent takeover of Twitter had diverted his attention from his electric car business.


On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays of this week, Musk sold another 22 million shares in the company, worth $3.58 billion.


This brings the total value of Tesla shares sold by Musk over the past year to nearly $40 billion.


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