Twitter shut down the account for Elon’s Musk jet but left the ones that tracked Mark Zuckerberg, and other celebrities up and running.

Associated Press
Twitter banned an account that tracked Elon Musk’s plane, but left many other accounts that were tracking celebrities. Twitter suspended @ElonJet on Wednesday but more than 30 accounts are still active. Musk has previously expressed concern about the accounts.

Twitter account Elon Musk suspended that that tracks the billionaire’s private plane on Wednesday, but did not address other accounts that follow the travels of dozens more celebrities.

Jack Sweney, a twenty-year-old, has more than 30 Twitter accounts for jet tracking that follow various public figures like Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg as well as celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian.

Sweeney’s Twitter account @elonjet was suspended on Wednesday due to “Twitter suspending accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.” However, Sweney’s @elonjet account on Twitter had a notice saying it was suspended because “Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”

Sweeney, Musk and a Twitter spokesperson didn’t respond to a request to comment before publication.

Musk could have suspended the accounts to try to get rid of bot accounts. Sweney’s accounts use Bots to post travel information from the ADSB Exchange. This is an independent website that tracks aircrafts and uses publicly available data.

Musk has been vocal on Twitter this week regarding his plans to eliminate bots. He stated on Saturday that “bots will be a real surprise”. Platformer reported Tuesday that Twitter blocked access to the site for dozens of legitimate Twitter users while it was trying to remove spam accounts.

Sweeney stated earlier this week in a Twitter thread, that he had learned from an anonymous Twitter employee his account was shadowbanned or partially blocked without him knowing. This was later confirmed and confirmed by Insider.

Sweeney shared an image of internal messages sent by Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head for trust and safety, asking her team to use heavy visibility filtering on ElonJet accounts. This would limit their reach.

Musk expressed concern about Jack Sweeney’s jet-tracking account @elonjet affecting his personal safety, but he said that he would not remove it in November.

The billionaire, who bought Twitter one week ago, tweeted that his commitment to free speech extended to not banning the account after my flight.

Sweeney stated that he believed it was likely Musk would shut down Twitter when he first offered to purchase it. After Musk called the account a security risk, the billionaire offered to shut down the account for $5,000. The college student of 20 years turned down the offer.

Musk had two programs in place that could allow planes to fly incognito before Musk took over the jet-tracking accounts. However, they aren’t foolproof.

First, Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (also known as LADD) allows private plane owners to avoid any FAA-data-based tracking software like FlightAware and Flightradar24. These tail numbers will not be visible to the public when they are searched.

The “privacy ICAO airplane address” or PIA is the second program. It allows owners of aircraft to replace their tail number with a temporary one that has not been used by any other aircraft, allowing them fly incognito.

The FAA has issued over 300 PIAs since December 2019, but Insider was told that they, along with LADD, “do not guarantee absolute confidentiality.”

ADS-B Exchange doesn’t use FAA data, but rather uses data from ADSB-equipped aircraft which broadcast information such as speed and GPS location. The website will display LADD and PIA aircrafts but not the tail number. However, it will indicate if the aircraft belongs to either agency program.

Jack Sweeney tracked Elon Musk’s private flight with PIA flag. Jack Sweeney via ADS–B Exchange

Sweeney’s Twitter bot uploads PIA flight information to Twitter. The FAA told Insider that Freedom of Information Act requests as well as commonly used airports can be used to track PIA aircrafts.

Sweeney explained to Insider that Elon Musk has a Gulfstream, and that there are only so many people who fly that plane out of Brownsville in Texas and go to the same airports.
Business Insider has the original article.
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By: gkay@insider.com (Grace Kay,Taylor Rains,Sawdah Bhaimiya)
Title: Twitter took down the account that tracks Elon Musk’s jet, but the ones tracking Mark Zuckerberg and other celebrities are still up and running
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/twitter-booted-elon-musk-jet-tracking-account-left-mark-zuckerberg-2022-12
Published Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2022 18:03:03 +0000