Twitter has rolled out a new policy that bans users from sharing live locations of others on the platform – just hours after Elon Musk suspended ‘ElonJet’ that was tracking his private jet.
Musk banned the account created by 20-year-old Jack Sweeney Wednesday while noting he is taking legal action against the Florida man. Hours later, Twitter published tweets about an update to its Private Information policy.
Twitter Safety posted that sharing an individual’s live location increases the risk of physical harm, and all such tweets will be removed and the creator’s account suspended.
Musk had previously vowed to keep Sweeney’s account up following his $44 billion takeover of the tech giant, but the mogul has had a change of heart.
On Wednesday at 7:13 pm ET, the Chief Twit posted: ‘Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation.’
The tweet was published about 30 minutes before Musk revealed a ‘stalker’ had followed a car carrying ‘lil X in LA.’
Twitter announced accounts sharing live locations of users will be suspended. The updated policy states sharing such information puts others at risk of harm
Sweeney created ElonJet in 2020, which used public air travel data to map the flights of Musk’s private jet, thinking it’d be exciting to track how Musk managed his business empire.
He had also hoped to get Musk’s attention and secure an internship at either Telsa or SpaceX, Sweeney told DailyMail.com this past January.
The same month, the billionaire offered Sweeney $5,000 to remove a Twitter bot tracking.
But with no progress from Sweeney, Musk made an executive decision to ban the account.
It is unclear what legal action Musk could take against Sweeney for an account that automatically posted public flight information.
Before Wednesday, the ElonJet had more than 526,000 followers.
‘He said this is free speech and he´s doing the opposite,’ Sweeney said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Musk echoed the updated guidelines in a tweet, noting that sharing live locations is dangerous, but users are still allowed to show their own locations – just not anyone else’s.
The new policy prohibits users from sharing individual’s ‘home address or physical location information, including street addresses, GPS coordinates or other identifying information related to locations that are considered private.’
Twitter has added other items such as identity documents, government-issued IDs, social security or other national identity numbers.
And posting media of private individuals will also get your account suspended.
Sweeney said that he suspects the short-lived ban stemmed from anger over those leaks.
However, he has similar accounts on Facebook and Instagram that are still online.
Musk has previously criticized that filtering technique – nicknamed ‘shadowbanning’ – and alleged that Twitter’s past leadership unfairly used it to suppress right-wing accounts.
He has said the new Twitter will still downgrade the reach of negative or hateful messages but will be more transparent about it.
In his push to loosen Twitter’s content restrictions, he’s reinstated other high-profile accounts that were permanently banned for breaking Twitter’s rules against hateful conduct, harmful misinformation or incitements of violence.
The announcement comes just hours after Elon Musk (left) suspended Jake Sweeney’s (right) account that tracked the mogul’s private jet and shared location information
Musk had previously vowed to keep Sweeney’s account up following his $44 billion takeover of the tech giant, but the mogul has had a change of hear
However, Musk also has to fear people tracking him in the real world.
The Twitter CEO said Wednesday that his two-year-old son X Æ A-Xii, known as X, was followed by a balaclava-clad stalker in Los Angeles on Tuesday night – and he is now trying to hunt down the man.
In the short video, the suspect was seen wearing a black hood and driving a white Hyundai – before picking up his phone to record the encounter himself.
The video, believed to be filmed by Musk’s driver, panned toward the car’s license plate. There was a short exchange with the alleged stalker – where the driver seemed to utter: ‘Got it.’
If you enjoyed this article…
Elon Musk offers college student $5,000 to delete Twitter bot tracking his private jet over ‘security concerns’
Also, teen who tracks Elon Musk’s private jet and shares the location on Twitter TURNS DOWN offer of a free Tesla Model 3 in exchange for deleting the account
And student, 19, who tracked Elon Musk’s private jet on Twitter creates account showing the locations of aircraft owned by Russian oligarchs including Roman Abramovich
