Hacker Read top | best | new | newcomments | leaders | about | bookmarklet login

They banned it again about 8 minutes ago. I was scrolling through the linked thread when it got suspended and the tweets disappeared.


view as:

He should make up his mind about this 'free speech' thing and then stick to whatever decision he comes up with for at least a couple of months. This is beyond silly.

Yeah... if he really cared about anyone else's personal safety other than his own, he wouldn't have fired the twitter safety team, and then not said anything about a former twitter executive.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-tw...


Elon mostly cares about Elon and the rest of the world are cardboard NPCs to him as far as I'm interpreting all of his actions for the last two months.

you typo'd decades

its just more clear to more remote/casual observers the last two months


Fair.

I don’t even think it was particularly about his personal safety. So someone gets a notification he has landed in Miami - are they going to race to the airport, hop the fence, run to his plane and confront him?

I genuinely think he just found it irritating that someone was trying to make him look bad. I don’t blame him, I’d probably feel the same way. But then I haven’t bought a social media platform and loudly and repeatedly proclaimed that I am a free-speech absolutist.


This is all public info from the FAA.

Unless Elon plans to ban the FAA from doing its job, people will know where Elon Musk's airplane is at all times.

Banning a silly Twitter account that copy/pastes data from the FAA won't change a thing.

The paparazzi have been using these things to follow celebrities since forever. It's an exorcise in ignorance to ignore the nature of FAA regulations / airplane tracking.


Actually it's not even information from FAA since ADS-B Exchange use information gathered by private individuals.

AFAIK all you need to gather ADS-B information for your own location is Android Phone, $30 USB dongle and some Antena.


That will only let you know when the plane is overhead, and costs 30 USD more than Twitter.

> It's an exorcise in ignorance to ignore the nature of FAA regulations / airplane tracking.

It may be more of an exercise of Elon flexing his $44B investment over the heaters and the poor people: by this point he knows that anyone even slightly left of center is not going to love him, so he's full on embracing the far/alt right crowd by "owning the libs". "Free speech" is lip service at max that some people fell for hook, line, and sinker.


Well that’s the other thing - banning the account on Twitter doesn’t make this go away. It just means people will follow them on FB or just use flightradar24 instead.

Paging Ms. Streisand.

Ms. Barbra Streisand, on the white courtesy phone...


Exactly. A thread on Twitter about his Jets wouldn't touch his personal safety since the data is public, but it would attract more among the people who don't like him, therefore he would be giving exposure to discussions against his public image.

He has all rights to ban whoever he wishes since he owns the platform, but common sense should suggest him to stop talking about free speech since he's in no position to lecture anyone on the matter.


> He has all rights to ban whoever he wishes since he owns the platform.

I'm sure stuff like antidiscrimination law etc. in several jurisdictions would make such behavior illegal.


> Banning a silly Twitter account that copy/pastes data from the FAA won't change a thing.

Of course it does.

When you make something easier to do, the effect is it increases the chance of people doing it.

If your contact information is listed in a telephone book, it is publicly accessible information. Anyone can look that up. But who's going to do that? (to prank call you for example). But if some posts your info to a twitter account that reaches millions, chances are someone's going to call you. Why? Because popped up in millions of peoples' twitter feeds. And since it's so low effort, one or more people with nothing better to do will call.


That might be true for most instances of "you", but if you are Elon Musk, people will find your phone number in the telephone book anyway.

His son X got threatened. Someone blocked the car and jumped on the hood. That's why they made this rule so suddenly.

Definitely believe this self-justifying story made up on the spot by a notoriously inveterate liar.


ok, understandable. so he understands posts can potentially impact safety in the real world.

so why does he actively mock some people or groups and make them seem unreasonable when they ask for twitter to help with their safety?

do only billionaires get help from twitter now?


Because we're all just extras in Elon's life story. Why should he care when the token black guy gets eaten by a shark?

So people were tweeting real time location of Elon's son? Or just Elon's jet?

People get threatened by random weirdos all the time.


... imagine all those crazy Elon stalkers base-jumping on his flying plane's roof!

> So someone gets a notification he has landed in Miami - are they going to race to the airport, hop the fence, run to his plane and confront him?

Even if congress shutdown ADS-B receiving or encrypting it somehow, people would just get out the long range camera lenses and take pictures of the tail numbers as the planes land and report it on a web site.


ADS-B is used all over the world, the trend is actually in the opposite direction: more and more airspace requires the use of ADS-B. Encrypting it would defeat the purpose of allowing airplanes to see each other as well (ADS-B to some extent replaces radar).

Congress could presumably pass some law but it would have to be ICAO or some other global organization that would formalize the change. Updating the systems on all aircraft would take many years. The current roll-out has been in progress for more than a decade.


None

That never happened. It's incredible how many people will just lap up what someone fantasizes over breakfast.

These are repeated so often it's mind-boggling. Somehow we're supposed to believe that 1) The team before did nothing, and 2) That the new team, which is not team at all and possibly doesn't even exist, IS doing something? How do either of those make sense? But it's acceptable to so many people because pedophilia is the new Satanic Panic.

Step 1: Say a falsehood

Step 2: Repeat Step 1 for a long time

Step 3: Enough people believe it it's true.

When the twitter obituary is written, people will say this was the death knell.


Not true. They censored that stupid H Biden lap top story _including in DMs which thus far had supposedly only been used for underage illicit material_.

He said in multiple tweets theres still rules particularly with direct harm to people. Idk why you would think doxxing and tracking someones location (which in this case they stalked his family) would be ok. I feel like this is just a talking point even though you and others know better but just dont like Musk. If thats the case just say it.

Rules for thee but not for me.

As for me liking Elon Musk: I used to. And then somewhere along the line it changed and now I in fact do not like him. But my liking or not liking him has nothing to do with simply holding him accountable, he made some pretty expensive statements and he fails to live by them, even for a very short period. And conveniently just when he's decided to ban that account a stalker of his family pops out of the woodwork. I'm sorry but Musk has lost the benefit of the doubt with me, too many lies over too many years.


Why would he tweet “tweets about my location posted on a delayed basis aren’t that bad” then an hour later ban it again? It’s very odd and throws gasoline for his detractors.

This is after very publicly saying he would stand up even to people posting his flight info just last month.

I get being emotional about the kid being stalked but the mixed signals are just frustrating.


The link between his kid being stalked - assuming it even happened - and deleting the account as well as his previous statements on the subject simply do not add up. This could have happened at any point prior to him taking over Twitter, but it didn't and now, magically, within 48 hours of the discussion around blocking the account blowing up there is the silver bullet. I'll read the police report if and when it becomes public (again, assuming there is one, which presumably there should be).

Edit: an upthread comment states that the owner of the elonjet account says that the account has not tweeted since Dec. 12th so that the two can't possibly be connected.


The location of his jet is public info you can get from the FAA site. Posting it to Twitter is not doxxing.

If your contact info was listed in a public white page directory, would you be okay with someone looking up that publicly available info and posting it to millions of people on twitter?

Elon’s contact info was not shared publicly with millions of people. The location of his private jet, which is public information, was republished on Twitter.

The GP's argument is that if any information is publicly available, it's ok to repost it as much as you want.

Even your comment emphasizes the concept of "public information"


Most of us have the ability to drive to someone's house. Most of us do not have the ability to intercept a flight or gain access to the secured area of an airport.

If I am using my real name, and if I am aware that my address is publicly listed, why not? If I worked in an office and made that information public, would I be expected to be upset when someone publishes the address of that office on Twitter?

Now, if I'm pseudonymous, that's a different matter: someone would be revealing my real name's association with that pseudonym, which may be a problem.


Huh, I wouldn't be okay with it. I'd find it quite disconcerting. I'm talking about posting my home address. Work address I wouldn't care about.

To each his own.


Explain Yoel Roth.

Explain Libs of Tiktok.


In general I'm an Elon fan but it's funny watching him kinda learn why things are the way they are.

He supported it in theory until he learned that it could affect not just him but his family.


I could see being an Elon fan ~5 years ago, pre-pedo guy, and before it became clear that all of his promises are lies. Why now?

I don't understand the adulation or the contempt.

He's done good things with SpaceX and Tesla. He's flawed. Shrug.


As far as billionaires go he’s way more amusing than Bezos and Gates and Buffet all put together. Only Bankman-Fried has been close on the entertainment front.

That is a good thing?

In terms of fandom, those who put on a more entertaining performance will attract more fans.

I mean if we have to have billionaires they might as well perform for my amusement.

Right up to the point where you become the focal point of their power and end up the victim. This isn't amusing unless you find train wrecks amusing.

A king is only as powerful as his subjects are loyal. If someone transitions from being amusing to being a train wreck, what is offered in return for the people to continue to recognize such power?

He had an ex-employee SWATted, that alone is contemptible enough for me.

Also doxed a Tesla short seller on Twitter and tried to get him fired. Also lied about some other person looking into Tesla and claimed he ran over employees in the parking lot, taking him to court.

Elon has an extensive history of vindictiveness.


When did he have him swatted? Like he gave away the persons address or called the swat team on him?

Vern Unsworth is a cave diver who assisted with the Thai cave rescue a few years ago.

He was derisive of Musk, who wanted Tesla engineers to help rescue the trapped children.

Musk responded to this criticism by calling Unsworth a "pedo" and "child rapist" and hiring a private detective to investigate Unsworth. Unsworth ended up suing Musk for defamation.

Flawed is liking pineapple on pizza, not using your platform of millions of followers to call someone a child rapist. That's worthy of contempt to me.


Just a point of clarification, he hired the private detective before he was sued.

D'oh, thanks, I've fixed that mistake in my comment.

You can admit Elon is extremely petty and short-sighted in private personal matters but admit he still attempts to do good in the greater scheme. That's where I'm at personally. I despise his lack of consistency and restraint in his position of power, but still respect his wider goals in reducing censorship and making bold investments in technological moon shots.

I'm cynical though, I only see lesser evils as all you can wish for in politics and culture. Trusting in politicized public figures = pure disappointment

The most sympathetic scenario re: twitter (ignoring the other Musk issues around FSD/pre-Twitter stuff): a few very public examples of him censoring people for petty reasons VS pre-Musk twitter banning (or silently shadowbanning) many thousands who happened to fall outside the current-thing Overton Window, using equally or worse biased/misguided reasons (ie, 'misinformation') and quietly taking requests from gov/intel agencies... still a net gain over all. But tons of work to be done.


This kind of "flawed" seems like a perfect reason to strongly distance oneself from any past suggestions of "being a fan" (everyone makes mistakes after all), but to each their own.

I don't know anyone these days who is the model of morality. People are pretty messed up in general. I think at least Elon puts most of his energy into doing things that are good for the planet and people.

There's a very long way between being the model of morality and being someone like Musk.

Everyone has issues, and does bad things from time to time. But I respect that he's been able to build the companies he has while enduring almost constant hate from the beginning. He had some supporters but CNBC and the like were constantly talking about how Tesla would go bankrupt and how it was a total waste of money.

And I think Elon does some really dumb things but in general I want him to succeed on what he is doing.


He's just speed running all the decisions and problems the last lot faced. They started with anyone being able to say anything too, and then spent 10+ years finding every exception and complication to that policy.

And they at least seemed to go about it with a lot more care and deliberation.

If this is "why things were the way they were" why hadn't Twitter already banned the account?

Either:

1) This is a change to policy, or

2) Twitter didn't enforce the rules evenly to punish people they didn't like, like Elon


I think he and quite a number of people who wave the "free speech" banner are pretty consistent here. Anything the ingroup says comes under free speech. Anything the outgroup says is a shocking imposition on the freedoms of the ingroup.

It fits pretty well with Musk's "woke" obsession. He should be able to do and say whatever he wants. But if he gets booed in response, then "The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters". Because the booers couldn't possibly be equal humans using freedom of speech to express their feelings.



I'm way past the point where I will believe Musk at his word.

I think even if his private jet went completely dark and no updates to its location were posted anywhere this wouldn’t have changed anything here. If this happened (who knows, maybe it did) knowing where the jet landed or took off doesn’t allow you identify the location of any of his children or ex wives/partners

He should be fully aware of the Streisand Effect at a minimum anyway.

Couldn't he buy a few jets owned by shell companies and have them randomly deadhead around the country as decoys? Or even, gasp, fly commercial?

Like he kept Alex Jones banned because Musk cradled his dying child? Except oops, that was a lie.

At this point if you believe anything Musk claims you are the dullest, most gullible shit I can imagine.


Maybe the title should be updated, or people scanning headlines will be misled.

  while not sufficient_hype:
    controversial_account.suspension = random.randint(0,1)
    ???
    profit()

Legal | privacy