Twitter has been in constant flux since Elon Musk bought the platform. In October 2022, he completed the $44 billion deal after facing a lawsuit from the company. Even before purchasing Twitter, the new CEO pushed his agenda to reform the platform naming the mission ‘Twitter 2.0’. To remodel the platform, he has implemented many radical decisions. The significant aim was to uphold “free speech” on the platform.
In April 2022, when he announced his new purchase, he upheld the ideal of “free speech” to be perpetuated. He said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated”. But, since he completed the deal, there has been incongruence between his statements and his actions. Musk fired two engineers for disagreeing with his decisions on the platform. Now, in a new move, he has banned the account @elonjet after promising not to ban it.
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Elon Musk Bans All Jets Accounts After His Son Was Stalked
On December 14th, 2022, Elon Musk banned Jack Sweeney’s account along with the @ElonJet account. Jack started the account in 2020 because he revered Musk and his endeavors including Tesla. He launched the account amassing more than a million followers. The account used real-time flight data to track the billionaire’s jets using Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B). In November 2022, the Tesla owner added a new private jet Gulfstream G700 to his collection of private flights for $78 million.
It all started when a stalker followed Musk’s two-year-old son in Los Angeles. He updated his followers about the situation. Elon wrote, “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”. He asked the followers if anyone recognizes the man. But, later, he added that he has taken “legal actions” against Jack Sweeney and others who tried to cause harm to his family. Twitter suspended Sweeney’s account along with the @ElonJet one.
Anyone recognize this person or car? pic.twitter.com/2U0Eyx7iwl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
On November 7th, 2022, Twitter banned the bot account on the premise that it followed the Tesla owner’s private jet. But, Elon said, “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk”. However, as of the time it is getting reported, he has permanently suspended his account along with the bot account. The Californian student has had several accounts tracking the movements of jets of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and others.
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
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Jack Sweeney’s Twitter Account Was Shadow Banned, Unbanned, And Then Banned Again
On December 10th, 2022, he released a Twitter thread claiming that his account was shadowbanned. He received a screenshot of the order from Jim Baker, the now-fired Vice President of the Trust and Safety Council of Twitter asking to reduce his account’s visibility. But, after Jim was fired, Sweeney’s account was restored to its original form.
On December 14th, 2022, all of his accounts including the personal account were suspended for “platform manipulation and spam”. Jack claimed that Elon offered him $50,000 to take down the account due to safety concerns. He had massive respect for the Tesla owner but after the fiasco, he realized that Musk does not stand by his words. He told Buzzfeed, “Now I’m going to keep going on forever. I guess I can’t let him[Elon Musk] win now.”
After Wednesday’s debacle, Twitter tweaked its rules and regulations for the accounts sharing locations in real-time. Elon Musk tweeted, “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info”. But, it will not suspend accounts that share locations “someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis”.
Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.
Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
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