SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter has suspended a popular account that was tracking the private jet of the company’s CEO Elon Musk, media reported on Wednesday. According to media reports, the account was suspended by Twitter despite Elon Musk’s talk about free speech.
The suspended account was run by Jack Sweeney at the University of Central Florida. Media reports said that Jack attracted attention with his social media account that tracks the movements of Elon Musk’s plane and even rejected the Twitter boss’s offer of 5,000 US dollars to shut down @ElonJet, which had half a million followers.
Elon Musk and free speech
The development came one month following Elon Musk underscoring his dedication to free speech in a message via tweeter. He tweeted that his commitment to free speech extends even to not suspending the social media account following his plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.
BBC reported that Twitter has not yet responded to the matter. However, Sweeney has shared a screenshot with CNN of a message from the social media site saying Twitter had conducted a careful review and decided to permanently suspend the account for violating its rules.
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Sweeney is in charge of several other social media accounts that track the private flights of rich Americans like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Elon Musk made many changes after taking charge of Twitter, as he restored previously banned Twitter accounts, including former US President Donald Trump’s profile, which was banned after 6 January.
New York Times reported that the CEO of Tesla has also slashed the social media company’s staff and has reportedly stopped paying rent for some of Twitter’s offices, including the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
