Elon Musk takes legal action Twitter account that tracks his private jet
Elon Musk claims he is suing the owner of a Twitter account that tracks his private jet because he believes it put his son in danger.
On Wednesday, the @ElonJet account, which has more than 500,000 followers, was suspended.
Its 20-year-old owner Jack Sweeney tweeted each time Elon Musk's aircraft took off and touched down using publicly accessible flight tracking data.
Mr. Musk claims that Mr. Sweeney and others are currently the targets of legal action.
He tweeted, "Last night, crazed stalker thinking it was me followed car carrying his son lil X in LA, who later halted car from driving and climbed onto hood."
He continued, "As it is a physical safety violation, any account that discloses people's real-time locations would be suspended."
When questioned by the BBC, Mr. Sweeney disputed that the occurrence was connected to his account.
It happens after he revealed the suspension of the profile on his own Twitter account on Wednesday.
Mr. Sweeney's account appears to have been reinstated that evening. "Yes, I'm back," he tweeted. It was again classified as suspended a short while afterwards. Additionally, his personal account @JxckSweeney has been blocked.
A screenshot of a message from Twitter stating that it had performed a "careful assessment" and chosen to permanently ban the account for breaking its rules was shared by Mr. Sweeney, a college student in the state of Florida, with CNN.
The student is in control of other additional accounts that monitor the private flights of affluent Americans, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta.
On Wednesday afternoon, many of those accounts including one tracking planes connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin and another keeping an eye on celebrity jets appeared to have been suspended from Twitter as well.
The @ElonJet account had long been an irritant for Mr. Musk, who allegedly once paid Mr. Sweeney $5,000 to have it deleted.
Mr. Musk ultimately told Mr. Sweeney that paying to have the account closed did not feel right, according to Mr. Sweeney's statements to US media outlets.
And a month ago, Mr. Musk promised to continue operating it despite the fact that it posed a "direct personal safety risk."
Nevertheless, Mr. Musk tweeted on Wednesday night: "Any account that doxxes someone's current location will be suspended because it violates their physical safety. Links to websites that provide real-time location data are one example of this."
You may not publish or upload other people's private information without their express knowledge and approval, according to a revised media policy posted on Twitter by the Help Center.
Mr. Musk has changed Twitter's moderation procedures in a number of ways since becoming the reins of the company.
A few previously prohibited accounts have been reinstated by him, including the profile of former US President Donald Trump, which was prohibited following the uprising at the US Capitol on January 6.
According to the New York Times, the Tesla CEO has reduced Twitter's workforce and ceased paying rent for parts of the company's offices, including its San Francisco headquarters.
Investors have questioned whether his recent acquisition of Twitter has caused him to focus less on his electric vehicle company.
He sold a further 22 million shares in the company this week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for $3.58 billion (£2.9 billion).
With this sale, Mr. Musk has now sold roughly $40 billion worth of Tesla stock in the previous year.