Meta suspends user accounts on Instagram and Threads that track celebrity private jets

This morning, on both Instagram and Threads, accounts such as @elonmusksjet have been suspended including those that track the private jets of the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Kylie Jenner, according to the owner of some of these accounts Jack Sweeney. Meta replied to an inquiry from TechCrunch stating that these accounts violated the privacy policy of the platforms, reporting a "risk of physical harm" to the individuals in question.

Initially, these accounts started on Twitter tracking Elon Musk's jet, however, in 2022 they were banned from the platform following Musk's takeover of Twitter earlier in that same year. Attempting to access these accounts via searches just brings back an error message stating that "This page isn't available" and that "The link that you followed may be broken or the page may have been removed.

Meanwhile, ElonJet continues to post on Mastodon, and given the decentralised nature of the platform, can likely continue to do so either on the current instance or moving to new instances later on. Whether these posts will begin to be posted to Bluesky as well remains to be seen, as that platform is continuing to grow in recent months.

Additionally, a recent bill that was passed in the U.S. by President Joe Biden permits owners of Private Aircraft to anonymise their registration information, this can make it slightly more difficult to track these jets. Sweeney does say that it is still very easy to do however, even if this does present a new roadblock to getting the information required in an interview with Thrillist.

Source: TechCrunch