Elon Musk Suspended The Guy Tracking His Jet On Twitter & So Much For 'Free Speech'
It looks like Elon Musk has gone back on his word after suspending the Twitter account that tracks his private jet.
@ElonJet, a Twitter account that uses public data to report the movements of Musk's personal plane, was suspended on Wednesday morning, just over a month after Musk said he was leaving it up for "free speech" purposes.
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk," he wrote on November 6.
Other Twitter users have since added context to that tweet, pointing out that @ElonJet has been suspended.
Jack Sweeney, the guy who runs the account, confirmed that it had been suspended on Wednesday morning.
\u201cWell it appears @ElonJet is suspended.\u201d— Jack Sweeney (@Jack Sweeney) 1671026778
Sweeney, a Florida college student, began tracking the SpaceX and Tesla CEO's plane location in 2020 through his @ElonJet account using flight data that was publicly available.
Musk clearly didn't like being tracked and he reportedly offered to pay Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account.
"I don't love the idea of being shot by a nutcase," Musk said to Sweeney, according to the Guardian.
Sweeney counter-offered with a $50,000 price tag and later said he would do it for free in exchange for a free internship at Tesla.
That didn't end up going anywhere, and Musk later bought Twitter in a $44 billion takeover.
After his takeover, Musk hinted at possibly taking down Sweeney's plane-tracking account, but the 20 year old didn't seem concerned.
He said if Musk ever tried it, "it would be all over the news" and the move would backfire.
It was all over the news on Wednesday, with many calling out Musk for failing to stick to his "free speech" claims.
\u201cMusk said this just over a month ago\u201d— Leonardo Puglisi (@Leonardo Puglisi) 1671021399
Another Twitter user said Musk's old Tweet "aged like milk."
\u201c@Leo_Puglisi6 @elonmusk This aged like milk\nhttps://t.co/C8S9QA4fnG\u201d— Leonardo Puglisi (@Leonardo Puglisi) 1671021399
Narcity has reached out to Sweeney for a comment on the @ElonJet account suspension, but we did not hear back by the time the story was published. Musk also did not comment about it on Twitter.
