GROUNDED: Elon suspends another account he doesn’t like
It’s Elon vs. a college kid and once again Mr. Musk is looking like the dope.
Just over a month ago, Chairman Elon declared in a tweet, “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.”
Well, that changed rather quickly, as that account, @ElonJet, has now been suspended.
To be clear, his flight plans are actually a matter of public record. The UCF student who created the account, Jack Sweeney, simply designed a bot to report on that publicly accessible information. As TechCrunch has reported, he’s done this for other major figures too, including Mark Zuckerberg.
The one for Elon, though, was particularly popular, with over 500,000 followers.
But Musk didn’t stop there. No. Chairman Elon also suspended all other accounts this kid held, even though he had not violated any publicly available rules on the site. As a matter of fact, Elon’s November 6 tweet seemed to indicate that such activity is in fact permitted.
My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Sweeney replied to the suspension by Musk from his new Mastodon account.
It’s worth noting as well that the “Twitter Files” dump (“From the Files of Police Squad!”) that Elon orchestrated through sycophants Weiss and Taibbi specifically mentioned that Donald Trump hadn’t violated any rules by simply revealing a fact about his location, even though it was obvious to all that he was purposely letting the terrorist faction of his supporters know this in case they wanted to plan anything.
18. Next, Twitter’s safety team decides that Trump’s 7:44 am ET tweet is also not in violation. They are unequivocal: “it’s a clear no vio. It’s just to say he’s not attending the inauguration” pic.twitter.com/zdxSsG1UBS
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 12, 2022
One can only wonder if Bari Weiss, “Freedom Reporter” will condemn Elon’s latest actions.
Musk claims to be a free speech absolutist, but that seems to only apply when he likes you, because, if he doesn’t, look out.
He’s suspended the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, which has the stated mission of protecting those who might be attacked by white supremacists.
He’s suspended people like Kathy Griffin for mocking him with dummy accounts.
He suspended our own Tara Dublin for language purposes.
He even suspended me for twelve hours for making a joke about him.
Elon, you cannot have it both ways: either you genuinely believe in your free speech absolutist argument or you recognize that certain people shouldn’t be welcome in your home (like racists and bigots).
And that determination should not be based on your ego, which it always seems to be.
By the way, TechCrunch also noted that Elon offered to pay Sweeney $5,000 for the account, which the kid rejected (and kudos to him), suggesting he might take $50K.
But instead, the egomaniacal Chairman Elon decided to crush the kid, just because he could.
He probably spent more in resources doing that than the fifty grand, but, like a deranged mob boss, he felt he had to make his point.
Well, your point is made, Elon, and it’s that you’re an asshole.
Elon may ban Ross soon, but for now, at least, you can still follow him on Twitter as he goes after Chairman Elon from the inside: @RossRosenfeld
