Elon Musk has threatened legal action against University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney, who tracks the billionaire’s private plane.
Under new owner Elon Musk, Twitter has banned the Twitter accounts of one University of Central Florida student, including one account that was using publicly accessible information to track Musk’s private jet flights in real-time.
Late Wednesday, Musk threatened legal action against Jack Sweeney and “organizations who supported harm to my family.” Musk said a stalker followed and blocked a car carrying his two-year-old son, “Lil X,” in Los Angeles, thinking the occupant was him. The assailant climbed onto the hood, Musk tweeted.
Once offered $5,000 by Musk to take down his account, Sweeney may find himself opposite the billionaire in court. By Thursday morning, no federal civil lawsuits had been filed against Sweeney anywhere in the United States.
The automated flight tracker account @ElonJet flip-flopped on Wednesday. Twitter suspended the account, reinstated it, then permanently suspended it.
Hours after Twitter shut it down, the flight-tracker was temporarily back online but was no longer tracking Musk’s jet minute-by-minute. That appeared to be a concession to new Twitter rules against sharing “live location information.” It wasn’t immediately clear how long a delay was acceptable under the new rules. Then Twitter shut it down again.
“When someone shares an individual’s live location on Twitter, there is an increased risk of physical harm,” the new rules said.
It wasn’t clear how Twitter would enforce its new rules for tweets about contemporaneous reporting of public figures at live events, such as political speeches, public meetings, concerts or other such events.
In November, Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” tweeted he would not suspend the @ElonJet account, even though he said it was a direct personal safety risk.
