Twitter Suspends Over 25 Accounts That Track Billionaires’ Private Planes

The accounts that were suspended include one that followed the movements of the social media company's owner, who has said he was committed to "free speech."

Jack Sweeney, a 20-year-old college student and flight tracking enthusiast, said he woke up on Wednesday to find his account had been suspended The account amassed more than half a million followers by posting the location of Mr. Musk's private plane.

For a long time, Mr. Musk knew about ElonJet. He said that he would allow the account to stay on the platform after he bought it. Even though that is a direct personal safety risk, my commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my 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

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022

The personal account of Mr. Sweeney was suspended along with the other accounts that he runs that track the planes of tech billionaires. Mr. Sweeney was told that his account had been suspended for violating rules against platform manipulation.

In an interview, Mr. Sweeney said he had not changed how the plane tracking accounts behaved and that they had been suspended. He said that Mr Musk was doing the opposite of what he had said.

Since taking over the company, Mr. Musk has gone back and forth on what should and shouldn't be on the platform. He had originally said he would form a council to make decisions on moderation. He welcomed back the account of the former President and made an exception for people who had been suspended for violating its rules.

A request for comment from Mr. Musk and his company was not responded to. Real-time posting of someone else's location violates doxxing policy, but delayed posting of locations are okay.

There were new rules about live locations that were published in the last 24 hours. The policy states that if the information is not shared during a crisis to assist with humanitarian efforts, we will remove any accounts that share someone's live location.

The phrase "live location" was not mentioned on the web page about the policy on private information and media.

Mr. Musk blocked Mr. Sweeney after he tried to negotiate a deal. Mr. Sweeney uses public flight data to track the planes of tech billionaires, Russian billionaires and national and international government agencies.

On Wednesday, a tech investor and adviser to Mr. Musk used a phrase usually reserved for the sharing of private information on the internet to say that he believed that "sustained sharing of public location information is defacto doxing."

The information on the accounts was already public, according to Mr. Sweeney.

He said that someone could do it without him.