Elon Musk Blamed A 'Stalker' Incident On The Guy Tracking His Jet & People Are Calling BS
He says his son "lil X" was followed.
A man accused of stalking Elon Musk's son. Right: Elon Musk attending a Halloween party.
Twitter owner Elon Musk claims a stalker followed his child’s car in Los Angeles, and that’s why he banned the guy who tracks his jets.
However, the billionaire’s story is raising plenty of eyebrows online, especially since Musk previously said he wouldn’t ban the account because he believes in “free speech.”
Florida student Jack Sweeney confirmed on Wednesday that he and his automated account, @elonjet, had been suspended from the platform without explanation, after he angered Musk over the last two years by sharing the billionaire’s publicly available jet location.
Musk didn’t immediately explain himself, but he seemed to jump to conclusions on Wednesday night, when he blamed Sweeney for a stalking incident and threatened legal action.
“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 tweeted. He added that “legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.”
Musk also shared a brief video of a man wearing a balaclava behind the wheel of a car. The video shows the cameraman and the man in the car pointing phones at one another.
\u201cAnyone recognize this person or car?\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671065293
The Los Angeles Police Department told Insider and the U.S. Sun that it couldn’t verify Musk’s allegations without an address for where it might have happened.
Sweeney's other jet-tracking accounts have also been taken down, and Musk says he’ll now suspend any account that doxxes a person’s “real-time location” because it’s a “physical safety violation.”
“This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info,” he tweeted. He added that sharing that info on a “slightly delayed basis” is OK.
Twitter updated its official policy to reflect what Musk said.
Sweeney's jet-tracking bot is still up on Instagram, where you can see what he shared before the alleged stalking incident.
A post shows the jet taking off from Oakland, California and making a 48-minute flight to LAX in Los Angeles.
Many people ripped into Musk for banning Sweeney and suggested he was being a hypocrite. He did say last month that he wouldn’t ban Sweeney because he believes in free speech.
\u201c@Leo_Puglisi6 @elonmusk This aged like milk\nhttps://t.co/C8S9QA4fnG\u201d— Leonardo Puglisi (@Leonardo Puglisi) 1671021399
“He’s literally making this up as he goes,” Twitter user Mike Masse tweeted.
“Your plane isn’t ‘anyone.’ Your plane’s data is also public information,” added user Michael Rihani. “Free speech!* *as long as it doesn’t hurt Elon.”
“This rule literally violates the First Amendment,” added another critic.
Others asked how the sudden policy change would apply to journalists who follow major figures, such as athletes or the U.S. president.
\u201cHey @elonmusk, does this include photos shared at festivals and live events etc?? \n\nAsking for a confused world.\n\nHow\u2019s the quest for upholding freedom of speech going?\u201d— Tim Burgess (@Tim Burgess) 1671112412
It's worth pointing out that Musk tweeted a photo showing his child, X, in "beautiful San Francisco" last week, although it's unclear how long he waited before sharing the pic.
\u201cAnd with his Twitter badge\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1670519821
It's not the first time that Musk has used his "I'm the boss" powers against someone after finding himself on the wrong end of a tweet. He also suspended comedian Kathy Griffin last month after she trolled him by pretending to be him on the site.
Narcity has reached out to Sweeney for comment on the suspension but did not hear back as of press time.
Sweeney told BBC News that the alleged stalking incident had nothing to do with his jet-tracking account.