Twitter Temporarily Suspends Accounts Of Some Reporters For Doxxing Elon Musk

Jack Sweeney has in recent years, been a torn on the flesh of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The Twitter account @ElonJet operated by the Florida college freshman has been tracking the tech mogul’s private jet flights.

Sweeney dishonestly claims he's using publicly available data to track Musk's data as well as that of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

However, while third-party sources are able to access International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Addresses directly from the Automatic Dependence Surveillance Broadcast(ADS-B) Out transmissions, the Federal Aviation Administration FAA, created the Privacy ICAO Address(PIA) program to address concerns about potential privacy risks raised by business aircraft operators.

The PIA allows operators to use alternate, temporary ICAO aircraft addresses not attributable to an owner/operator in the publicly available Civil Aviation Registry(CAR). Musk has this, but Sweeney had boasted about obtaining it using a software.

Musk had this week, revealed on Twitter, that a masked far-left man followed a "car carrying [his 2 -year-old son] lil X" in Los Angeles. He said the "crazy stalker" thought it was him in the car and "later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood" he wrote. "Anyone recognize this person or car?" he asked, tweeting a video showing the masked stalker in a car holding a Smartphone.

On Wednesday, the account @ElonJet was suddenly suspended. “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Musk tweeted after reports of the ban went viral on social media. “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.”

Some far-left activists including reporters on Thursday, started tweeting links to Sweeney's accounts on other social media netowrks including Mastodon. Within hours, Twitter accounts of New York Times reporter Ryan Mac, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Matt Binder from Mashable, The Intercept’s Micah Lee and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, were auapended.

Also suspended were the accounts of far-left activists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster.

CNN released a statement Thursday night that blasted the “impulsive and unjustified” suspension of O’Sullivan and others. “Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who used Twitter,” the statement read. “We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”

The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, echoed those concerns about its own reporter, adding the suspension undermined Musk’s vow for free speech on the platform. “Harwell was banished from Twitter without warning, process or explanation, following the publication of his accurate reporting about Musk,” Buzbee said in a statement. “Our journalist should be reinstated immediately.”

Apparently the suspensions caught the entitled left-wing activists by surprise. Of course they didn't expect to be treated like other users of Twitter who broke the platform's rules. They are still having a collective meltdown online and on air, as of the time of writing of this report.

“They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service,” Musk tweeted late Thursday, in response to the hysteria about the bans. “7 day suspension for doxxing. Some time away from Twitter is good for the soul,” he added in reply to another tweet.

The Chief Twit briefly joined a Twitter Spaces conference chat late Thursday where he was hit with questions from some of the banned reporters.

“There is not special treatment for journalists,” a defiant Musk told listeners. “You dox, you get suspended, end of story,” he added, before abruptly leaving the chat.

Apparently far-left United States Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-New York) who seems to crave Musk's attention on Twitter, joined the fray late Thursday. “You’re a public figure," the socialist wrote, quote-tweeting the Tesla CEO. "An extremely controversial and powerful one. I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you. Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism. Maybe try putting down your phone.”

“As someone who has been subject to real + dangerous plots, I do get it," she added in a second tweet. "I didn’t have security and have experienced many scary incidents. In fact, many of the right-wing outlets you now elevate published photos of my home, car, etc. At a certain point you gotta disconnect.”

"You first lol," Musk replied.

The new Twitter CEO also posted two polls asking his tens of millions of followers if the banned accounts should be reinstated "now" or "In 7 days."

Musk pointed out that: "If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!"

The Chief Twit who didn't seem to miss much also called out journalist Bari Weiss who appeared to suggest that Twitter is run based on his whims.

"The old regime at Twitter governed by its own whims and  biases and it sure looks like the new regime has the same problem," Weiss tweeted. "I oppose it in both cases. And I think those journalists who were reporting on a story of public importance should be reinstated."

Musk who gave the left-wing blogger access last week, to report on the 'Twitter Files' scandal, didn't appreciate the blogger's virtue-signaling and fence-sitting tweet.

"What should the consequence of doxxing someone’s real-time, exact location be?" he asked Weiss. "Assume your child is at that location, as mine was."

He added in a follow-up tweet: "Rather than rigorously pursuing truth, you are virtue-signaling to show that you are “good” in the eyes of media elite to keep one foot in both worlds"

Amid the hysteria, left-wing network NBC News, late Thursday, suspended its tech reporter Ben Collins from covering Musk on NBC and MSNBC airwaves. The woke reporter is known for his obsessive and vitriolic coverage of the new Twitter owner. He has been breathelessly tweeting and retweeting the latest developments related to the account suspensions.

Collins, who has more than 380,000 Twitter followers, was repeatedly warned by NBC News management, over  his opinionated tweets about Musk. The woke reporter was reportedly reminded of the company’s journalistic guidelines that bar reporters from expressing their personal views on topics they are assigned to cover. He has been barred from reporting on Twitter or Musk across NBC platforms including the over-the-air network and cable news outlet MSNBC.