Elon Musk announced Wednesday night that he is pursuing “legal action” against the teenager who operates a now-suspended Twitter account that tracks the billionaire’s flights.
The Twitter CEO announced after indicating that a jet-tracking account controlled by Jack Sweeney, a freshman at the University of Central Florida, was to fault for a Tuesday stalking event in which Musk’s family was followed.
“Last night, car carrying Lil X in LA was followed by a crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked the car from moving & climbed onto the hood,” Musk tweeted, referring to his 2-year-old son X Æ A-12. “Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.”
Musk then posted a video of a man wearing a mask and hood inside a white Hyundai with the caption, “Anyone recognizes this person or car?” three hours later. He believes the accused stalker is an unidentified man.
Sweeney’s account was suspended early Wednesday. However, it was temporarily reactivated, allowing the kid to ask Musk for clarity on the rules before being deactivated again later Wednesday.
Musk stated that any Twitter account “doxxing anyone’s real-time location info will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation.”
After the first suspension, Sweeney told The Washington Post that the move made the tech billionaire a “full-on hypocrite.”
According to the New York Times, at least 25 other Twitter accounts that track billionaires’ private jets were suspended in the aftermath.
Users will be able to post the whereabouts of other travellers on a “slightly delayed basis” because it does not pose the same safety risk. According to a Twitter Safety thread, locations cannot be shared on the same day the subject travelled. However, users are free to share their own location.
Musk addressed Sweeney’s popular tracking account as a “direct safety risk” last month but promised to let the university student keep running it in the name of free speech.
Sweeney said his account had been shadow-banned two days before his suspension. Sweeney stated that a Twitter representative told him his account was blocked by “heavy visibility filtering.”