Dec. 15 (UPI) — Twitter has suspended an account that tracked billionaire Elon Musk’s private jet one month after Musk promised to leave it open as part of his “commitment to free speech.”
The account, created by 20-year-old University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney, had more than half a million followers.
It was suspended Wednesday for violating unspecified Twitter rules.”Well it appears @ElonJet is suspended,” Sweeney tweeted Wednesday, as he posted a screenshot of the message he received.
“Your account is permanently suspended. After careful review, we determined your account broke the Twitter rules,” the message said. “You won’t be able to create new accounts. If you think we got this wrong, you can submit an appeal.”
Sweeney’s account tracked the location of Musk’s plane using public flight data.
Sweeney’s personal account also was suspended Wednesday, in addition to accounts he created to track the private flights of former President Donald Trump, Bill Gates and Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg.
The account Sweeney used to tracked Musk’s SpaceX employee jets also was suspended Wednesday.
“This is coordinated and Elon is well aware I’m sure,” Sweeney wrote before his personal account was deleted.
Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October and started reshaping the social media platform, firing staff and reinstating banned accounts following months of criticism over what Musk called politically targeted censorship.
Last month, Musk vowed to keep Sweeney’s account that tracked his plane — in the name of 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,” Musk tweeted.
Sweeney told CNBC on Wednesday that he was surprised his account was suspended, saying Musk had offered to pay him $5,000 to take the account down at one point because it was a safety risk.
“Eventually, the last message from him was ‘It doesn’t feel right to take this down,'” Sweeney said.
Sweeney’s other accounts, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, which all track Musk’s private jet, are still active.
