Twitter has banned @ElonJet, the popular bot account that tracked CEO Elon Musk’s plane, days after the account’s owner accused the social media platform of shadowbanning it.
Navigating to the account now returns the message, “Account suspended: Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”
Over the weekend, Jack Sweeney, a first-year student at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the operator of the account, claimed that an anonymous Twitter employee had told him the company had severely limited the visibility of @ElonJet beginning on Dec. 2. The reported move came roughly four weeks after Musk made a big deal about how he wouldn’t ban @ElonJet because of his “commitment to free speech.”
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
By Monday, Sweeney said that it looked like Twitter had reversed course and reinstated @ElonJet’s visibility. However, the company seems to changed its mind again and taken an even more drastic move by early morning Wednesday, when some users noticed that @ElonJet was suspended.
Hi @elonmusk, what happened to @ElonJet? pic.twitter.com/XbvJpMV9st
— Daniel Ziegener (@sofakissen) December 14, 2022
Suspending an account even after he promised not to would be nothing new for Musk, whose interpretation of “free speech” has been all over the place, driving chaos at Twitter.
Back in January, Musk told the student via DM that he would give him $US5,000 ($6,941) to remove the account because it was a “security risk.” Sweeney rebuffed Musk’s offer, but said he would consider taking down @ElonJet for $US50,000 ($69,410) and an internship at one of the tech billionaire’s companies. In response, Musk blocked Sweeney on Twitter. Months later, after Musk announced his intent to buy Twitter, Sweeney said he had made contingency plans to keep the bot active on other platforms in case @ElonJet disappeared on the blue bird app. Faithful @ElonJet fans need not worry. You can still track America’s most infamous tech billionaire on Instagram, Facebook, and Telegram.
Our sister site Gizmodo reached out to Sweeney on Wednesday morning for comment about @ElonJet’s suspension but did not get a response by the time of publication. Twitter no longer has a communications department to contact for comment.
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