The account automatically reporting the routes of Elon Musk’s private jet was suspended by the platform on Wednesday despite the entrepreneur’s promise not to touch it, illustrating his variable geometry approach to moderation. “My commitment to freedom of expression goes so far as not to ban the account that follows my plane, even if it poses a direct risk to my personal safety,” Elon Musk wrote on Twitter in early November, a few days later. having bought the platform for 44 billion dollars.
Has the billionaire changed his mind? “Account suspended” was simply written on the account in question, baptized@ElonJet, Wednesday. Created by a student and followed by around 500,000 people, @ElonJet used public data to automatically indicate when and where the Spacex and Tesla boss’s device took off and landed.
Creator’s account also suspended
In a message posted at the top of the account when it was still visible, its author stressed having “all rights to transmit information” on the jet insofar as the data is public and that all the planes, even that of the American president Air Force 1, have the obligation to be equipped with a transponder, a device intended to help their identification by radar. “Twitter policy states that data found on other sites may be shared here as well,” the post read.
Many platform users also report that the student’s personal account, Jack Sweeney, is also suspended. Since his arrival at the head of the platform, the multi-billionaire has sent mixed messages about what is authorized or not. A fervent defender of great freedom of expression, he restored accounts previously banned by the social network, including that of Donald Trump. But he also suspended that of Kanye West after the publication of several messages deemed anti-Semitic.