Elonjet Posts Elon Musk’s Location Details on Twitter Alternative Threads
Meta’s Threads has experienced a significant surge in popularity this week, as over 70 million accounts were registered in just under 40 hours after the app’s launch. Among these users, there is one individual who is causing considerable annoyance to Elon Musk. This user is sharing content that Elon Musk previously described as “essentially coordinates for assassination” on Twitter.
In reality, the man behind Elonjet, Jack Sweeney, uses publicly available flight data to share the whereabouts of Musk’s private jet in near real time. Sweeney posted this information on Twitter, which bothered Musk long before he bought the company. Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account, but the offer was declined (a counteroffer of $50,000 or an internship at one of Musk’s companies never materialized).
In December, a couple of months after Musk bought Twitter, the Elonjet account was permanently suspended. Twitter updated its privacy policy around the same time to restrict users from sharing “publicly available location data after a reasonable period of time such that the individual is no longer at risk of physical harm.”
Sweeney created a new Twitter account that shows the location of Musk’s jet on a 24-hour delay, which was OK under the mandated policy. Elonjet accounts on other platforms show more up-to-date information, including Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Mastodon and Bluesky. The subreddit also tracks the machine.
Elonjet never really went away for a long time, but it shows something quite appropriate in Threads. The new application is a blatant competitor to Twitter. So much so, Twitter has threatened Meta with legal action, accusing it of using former employees and trade secrets to build Threads. Meanwhile, those looking to use Threads to keep a close eye on Musk’s jet will need to keep an eye on Elonjet’s profile — confusingly, Threads doesn’t yet have a chronological message feed.
However, Elonjet didn’t quite escape the wrath of the seemingly overzealous Threads moderators. According to ReturnByte alum Saqib Shah, Meta removed the account from the app “accidentally” but later reinstated it.
