@ElonJet, the account that tracks the movements of Elon Musk’s personal jet, has been suspended from Twitter. said Musk in November that the account posed an “immediate personal security risk” but that he would not ban it as part of his “commitment to free speech”.
It’s not clear what has changed in the month since that tweet. Messages from @ElonJet are published to Instagram and Facebook, also, and also does not show that the account has done anything unusual in the past few days. The account’s latest posts were yesterday and showed Musk’s plane landing in Los Angeles after a 48-minute flight.
The ban comes less than a week after the account’s creator, Jack Sweeney, claimed the jet tracker was quietly restrained by Twitter. Sweeney posted a screenshot of an alleged message from Twitter’s internal Slack that showed trust and safety leader Ella Irwin asking her team to “apply heavy VF.” [visibility filtering]immediately on the account. Sweeney linked to tweets suggesting the restrictions made @ElonJet harder to find in searches or suggestions for a period of time before later being rolled back.
The edge could not confirm the veracity of the screenshot and Irwin declined to comment when reached earlier this week.
Sweeney wrote on Twitter that @ElonJet now appears to be suspended. He told The edge that he has not received any communication from Twitter “besides the standard suspension warning.” He said the suspension may be related to “my news from the weekend,” referring to his post about Irwin’s filter request.
Musk had previously contacted Sweeney offering to pay to have the account deleted over concerns it was “a security risk”. told The New York Times.
The suspension appears to contradict Musk’s ideals of moderating Twitter. For months he has been stressing the importance of allowing “free speech” on the platform and providing transparency around moderation decisions. In this case, there is still no clarity as to why @ElonJet has been suspended.
With additional reporting from Alex Heath.
Update Dec. 14 at 10:05 a.m. ET: Updated with additional commentary from Sweeney.
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