Twitter Suspends, Un-Suspends, and Re-Suspends Elon Musk Jet Tracker Account He Claimed He Wouldn’t Ban

Britta Pedersen-Pool, Getty Images

Despite Elon Musk’s promise not to take action against the Twitter account that tracks the movements of his private jet, the account was banned on the platform.

Twitter briefly restored the account, but then suspended it again.

Jack Sweeney, the man who manages the @ElonJet Twitter account, has been claiming since Sunday that the social media platform has been suppressing his automated account that provides updates on Musk’s flight location. The accusations were published in Sweeney’s own version of the “Twitter Files,” wherein he claims that a Twitter employee informed him that @ElonJet was being shadowbanned with a “severe degree” of limited online visibility.

https://twitter.com/JxckSweeney/status/1601793881355739143

Following his initial accusations, Sweeney published a tweet saying that Twitter seemingly backtracked on suppressing the account.

https://twitter.com/JxckSweeney/status/1602354527205822469

On Wednesday, however, the account was outright suspended.

The brief axing of @ElonJet came after Musk previously expressed his displeasure with the account. But after buying Twitter, he said that he wouldn’t have it banned on the grounds of his belief in 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 said at the time.

Musk took heat on Twitter from users who said the ban runs contrary to his pledge to make the platform a haven for free speech. Many noted the account used publicly available information to track Musk’s private jet. It is unclear if the criticism led to the account being restored.