Twitter CEO Elon Musk reinstated the accounts of several journalists who were suspended earlier this week after publishing publicly available live tracking information about his private jet.
“The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,” Musk tweeted on Saturday after users voted in a Twitter poll to immediately reinstate the accounts.
Musk asked Twitter users whether he should reinstate the suspended accounts “now” or “in 7 days” in a poll on the platform. A majority of respondents —58.7 percent — voted “now,” while 41.3 percent said he should lift the suspensions in seven days.
The people have spoken.
Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now. https://t.co/MFdXbEQFCe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2022
The battle over Musk’s jet information began earlier this week when Musk tweeted that “legal action is being taken” against the owner of an account that actively tracks the whereabouts of the billionaire’s plane using publicly available information and other “organizations who supported harm” to his family.
Musk’s threat came after he said a “crazy stalker” was following a car carrying his 2-year-old son. He seemed to connect the incident to the flight tracker, which is run by college student Jack Sweeney.
“Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood,” Musk wrote Wednesday evening.
Musk later shared a video of the alleged stalker and asked, “Anyone recognize this person or car?”
“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Musk said. “This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.”
Sweeney’s jet-tracker account and his personal account were both suspended earlier on Wednesday. Sweeney posted a screenshot on Mastodon that showed he was suspended for violating “rules against platform manipulation and spam.”
Musk then began suspending journalists who he said were providing “assassination coordinates” by reporting on his personal information. However, the reporters and commenters said they were only covering Sweeney’s suspension.
Journalist Bari Weiss, who has been involved in the publishing of the “Twitter files,” spoke out against Musk’s suspension of the journalists’ accounts.
“The old regime at Twitter governed by its own whims and biases and it sure looks like the new regime has the same problem,” she wrote in a tweet on Friday. “I oppose it in both cases. And I think those journalists who were reporting on a story of public importance should be reinstated.”