Musk says he’s taking legal action over Twitter account that tracks his jet

Elon Musk is threatening to pursue legal action against an individual who set up a bot account on Twitter to track the movements of the billionaire’s private jet.

Musk had vowed to not ban the account last month, but Twitter on Wednesday suspended it and other jet trackers as the platform updated its doxxing policy to ban the sharing of individuals’ live location information.

Jack Sweeney, who ran the jet tracker, used publicly available flight data to automate the account, but the new policy bans location information even if it exists in the public domain.

Musk also pointed to another individual he said was following a car carrying his 2-year-old son, X Æ A-12. Musk connected the incident to the jet tracker, posting a video of the alleged individual and asking users to identify them.

“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,” Musk wrote. “Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.”

Sweeney’s trackers remain active on other platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. 

The Hill has reached out to Sweeney for comment.

Musk had pledged to return “free speech” to Twitter upon taking over the company in late October, railing against the platform’s past content moderation policies.

“My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” Musk wrote on Nov. 6.

But weeks later, Musk reversed and banned Sweeney’s accounts tracking his and other billionaires’ jets, as well as his personal handle.

“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Musk wrote on Wednesday as Twitter updated its policy. “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.”