Elon Musk Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against Trackers; Clarifies Private Jet ‘Doxing’ Policy

In a hectic day of account suspensions and reinstatements, Twitter owner Elon Musk finally shed light on his policy for accounts broadcasting the real-time locations of private jet users. In some cases, the accounts broadcast the destination airports of their high-profile owners hours before the flights were due to arrive.

Within the last hour, the billionaire tweeted, “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. 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.”

The @ElonJet account was briefly reinstated at that point, although it is now suspended again.

Shortly after, Musk followed up with another tweet, “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. Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.”

Merriam-Webster defines doxing “to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.”

This morning Twitter suspended the @ElonJet account set up by college student Jack Sweeney that tracked the Tesla boss’s private jet movements.

Sweeney had initially rebuffed an offer of $5,000 from Musk to take the account down, instead saying he wanted a Tesla car.

However, it wasn’t until hours later this afternoon on the East Coast that Twitter took accounts tracking other high-profile UHNWs such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Oprah, Jay-Z and Tom Cruise offline.

As of the moment, @CelebJets, @GatesJet and @Zuccjet remained suspended.

After buying Twitter, Musk tweeted, “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.”

It was that safety risk that upset both the industry’s trade group, the National Business Aviation Association, and executives who manage private jets for wealthy owners.

Earlier this year, a spokesperson for the NBAA told Forbes.com, “The real-time tracking and online broadcasting of business aviation flights—by anyone, anywhere in the world, with any motive—raises many serious concerns, including with regard to passenger security, safety and corporate espionage. These concerns have been repeatedly reflected in bipartisan congressional legislation requiring the FAA to provide an opt-out from real-time flight tracking. This latest example of flight-stalking underscores the need to ensure that people aren’t required to surrender their personal security and safety just because they get on an airplane.”

Musk has been in the news almost daily since paying roughly $44 billion for the social media company. His tweets weigh in on a variety of subjects from Donald Trump to previous management, Anthony Fauci (“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci”), updates on Tesla (“Semi’s cabin is significantly bigger than that of traditional heavy trucks, with lots of storage and easy access”) and the ratio of digital to biological computing. It’s apparently growing “exponentially.”

While Musk had couched @ElonJet as a “direct personal safety risk,” industry executives believed the Jack Sweeney accounts also created unnecessary risk for flight crews, other passengers and workers at the terminals that private jets use.

Reaction to Musk’s reason for the suspension seemed mainly negative.

“He’s literally just making this shite up as he goes,” filmmaker Francis Maxwell tweeted.

Medhi Hasan, an anchor with MSNBC, tweeted, “So if there’s harm to Musk or his family, then it isn’t free speech and it is restricted. Harm to anyone else or their families, it’s free speech – nay, it’s the future of Western civilization! – and there can be no restrictions.”