Twitter suspends accounts of developer who shared Elon Musk’s flight info

Twitter has suspended the accounts of a developer because they shared flight information from planes belonging to famous people. Sharing real-time location data is also immediately prohibited on Twitter.

Developer Jack Sweeney stated to a journalist from The New York Times that all his Twitter accounts, through which he shared public flight information from planes of famous people, have been suspended. There were about 30. Some time later, his personal Twitter account was also suspended.

Twitter has not yet released an official statement on the suspensions, but CEO Elon Musk did provide some explanation. He states in a tweet that a stalker had attacked Musk’s car with his son in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening. According to Musk, the stalker thought the CEO was in the car. Musk then referred to Jack Sweeney’s account and stated that legal action has been taken against the man and other organizations that Musk believes supported the targeting of his family.

According to Musk, any Twitter account that shares real-time location data of someone will now be suspended as this would violate a person’s physical integrity. According to Musk, this rule also applies to accounts that link to web pages containing references to real-time physical locations of people. According to Musk, sharing location data that is ‘a bit’ outdated is not problematic and is therefore still allowed on Twitter.

For years, Elon Musk has been fiercely against the account @ElonJet, which tracked flights of Musk’s private jet based on public flight data. Musk however, said after his acquisition of Twitter explicitly that he would not suspend this account because of his own interpretation of freedom of expression on the platform. He wanted to keep @ElonJet alive, even though he said it posed “a direct, personal security risk.” It is exactly that wording that Twitter is now using to justify the new policy.

Jack Sweeney is a twenty-year-old American student who created a Twitter account in June 2020 through which he shared flight information from Elon Musk’s private jet. In November last year, Musk contacted Sweeney and offered the man $5,000 to stop spreading the flight information. Sweeney refused and asked for a higher amount. Shortly after Elon Musk took over Twitter, Musk claimed that he would guarantee the right to freedom of expression on the platform. Even if this could pose a safety risk to himself. He was referring to Sweeney’s account with flight information from his private plane.