Twitter suspends account tracking Elon Musk's jet

A Twitter account that tracked flights of Elon Musk’s private jet put out word Wednesday that it was suspended by the platform despite the billionaire’s talk of free speech.

“Well it appears @ElonJet is suspended,” creator Jack Sweeney tweeted from his personal @JxckSweeney account.

Sweeney attracted attention with his Twitter account that tracks the movements of the billionaire’s plane and even rejected Musk’s offer of $5,000 to shut down @ElonJet, which had hundreds of thousands of followers.

Musk had gone public saying he would not touch the account after buying Twitter in a $44 billion deal as part of his commitment to free speech at the platform.

Sweeney referred people to accounts he runs at social media services such as Instagram, Facebook and Mastodon for his latest posts regarding Musk’s jet.

Musk’s jet “flew from LA to Austin last night after my account was suspended on Twitter,” he said in an Instagram post Wednesday.

Flight-following websites and several Twitter accounts offer real-time views of air traffic, but that exposure draws pushback ranging from complaints to equipment seizures.

US rules require planes in designated areas be equipped with ADS-B technology that broadcasts aircraft positions using signals that relatively simple devices can pick up.

Figuring out or confirming to whom a plane actually belongs can require some sleuthing, said Sweeney, who filed a public records request with the US government in order to confirm Musk’s ownership of his plane.

Suspension of the account came a day after Twitter co-founder and former chief Jack Dorsey published an online post defending the tech firm’s workers, who Musk has criticized for decisions regarding content moderation.

“I’m a strong believer that any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it,” Dorsey wrote.

“It should be always available and addressable. Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible.”