(NewsNation) — Elon Musk says he is going to sue Jack Sweeney, the programmer who tracked his private jet on the Twitter account “ElonJet.”
“Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood. Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family,” Musk tweeted Wednesday evening.
The new Twitter CEO’s words come after Sweeney claimed Twitter hid his account and then challenged Musk in an interview with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert on Tuesday night.
“I’m the one person that is showing whether he’s really going to do complete, full free speech on Twitter,” Sweeney told Vittert.
On Wednesday, Twitter apparently suspended the “ElonJet” account, Sweeney’s personal account and other accounts backed by Sweeney that track flight information. Hours later, the “ElonJet” was public again after Twitter imposed new rules that accounts cannot share someone’s current location.
This comes after Musk said last month he would not ban the account following his plane. “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 on Nov. 6.
Just after 5 p.m. Wednesday, the Twitter Safety account posted the social media platform has updated their private information policy to prohibit sharing someone else’s live location in “most cases.” “When someone shares an individual’s live location on Twitter, there is an increased risk of physical harm. Moving forward, we’ll remove Tweets that share this information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended,” the Twitter Safety account tweeted.
“Doxxing” often refers to publicly sharing someone’s private information like their address or identity online. When reviewing reports of doxxing under their policy, Twitter’s Help Center states the company considers four key questions:
– What type of information is being shared?
– Who is sharing the information?
– Is the information available elsewhere online?
– Why is the information being shared?
Sweeney, through the “ElonJet” account, insists he has every right to post about the locations of jets.
“This account has every right to post jet whereabouts, ADS-B data is public, every aircraft in the world is required to have a transponder, Even AF1 (Air Force Track) Twitter policy states data found on other sites is allowed to be shared here as well,” the “ElonJet” account posted on Jan. 18.
Leland Vittert says Musk’s actions show where the Twitter CEO actually stands on free speech suppression: “Well, it didn’t take long. We have now figured out where Elon Musk draws the line about free speech when it comes to people talking about his private Gulfstream jet. That is the line.”
