An account on Twitter has been suspended for tracking the whereabouts of Elon Musk’s private jet. The suspension comes one month after Musk promised to leave the account open due to his “commitment to free speech.”
@ElonJet Suspended
Jack Sweeney, 20, is a University of Central Florida student and the user behind the Twitter account @ElonJet. The account had half a million followers but was suspended Wednesday for what Twitter says was a violation of the rules.
“Well, it appears @ElonJet is suspended,” Tweeted Sweeney, showing a screenshot of the message from Twitter.
“Your account is permanently suspended. After careful review, we determined your account broke the Twitter rules,” the message said. “You won’t be able to create new accounts. If you think we got this wrong, you can submit an appeal.”
Sweeney was able to track Musk’s plane using public flight data.
Unfortunately for Sweeney, that wasn’t the only account suspended by Twitter. Sweeney’s personal account was suspended along with the accounts he created to track the private jets of Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Safety Or Freedom Of Speech?
“This is coordinated, and Elon is well aware, I’m sure,” Sweeney wrote before his account was deleted.
Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October. It started reshaping the social media platform, firing staff and reinstating banned accounts following months of criticism over what Musk called politically targeted censorship.
Back in October, the billionaire mogul acquired Twitter for $44 billion. Since then, Musk has been reshaping the platform by reinstating banned accounts and organizing mass layoffs of Twitter employees.
In November, Musk said he would keep the @ElonJet account open because of “free speech.”
“My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” Musk tweeted.
CNBC reported Sweeney was surprised. Musk suspended his account, as Musk even offered to pay $5000 for him to take it down.
“Eventually, the last message from him was ‘It doesn’t feel right to take this down,'” Sweeney said.
Sweeney’s other accounts, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, which all track Musk’s private jet, are still active.