Meta has banned a series of accounts that posted updated locations of private jets owned by some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump. .
Those accounts have been removed from Threads and Instagram, and the corresponding Facebook accounts will be removed soon, Meta communications director Andy Stone told NBC News.
The account is run by Jack Sweeney, a Florida college student, and has tracked people including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. There is. Some still exist on other platforms such as Bluesky.
In a Signal conversation with NBC News, Sweeney defended his flight tracking project.
“This has journalistic value and obviously exposes a lot of parts of a CEO’s job and what kinds of partnerships occur. Now it’s not just about that, it’s about the very fact that the plane is flying, Climate awareness has also increased,” he said, referring to the connection between jet travel-related carbon emissions and climate change.
Stone, Meta’s communications director, said in an email that the company decided on the ban due to “the risk of physical harm to individuals,” and that the company’s independent oversight board in 2022 decided to ban access to private residences. It cited a recommendation that the reference be deleted.
Although the advisory does not mention commercial flights, Stone said Meta considers them to be “broadly applicable to personally identifiable information.”
Meta is taking an increasingly assertive stance in controlling what users can share on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. In February, the company announced it would no longer recommend accounts that post “political content,” a broad category that includes references to government and elections.
Jet tracking accounts have long been a popular source of information for journalists and celebrity watchers, but they have also become a major flashpoint in recent years.
In 2022, shortly after acquiring Twitter (now Company
Musk said he believes these accounts violate the social media platform’s rules against doxing, which is primarily the posting of the personal information of someone considered a threat to safety.
Musk threatened legal action against Sweeney at the time, but never filed charges.
Mr. Sweeney subsequently opened an account on the platform, posted the same information a day later, and is still present on the platform.
Mr. Sweeney said he did not intend to provide a similar delayed explanation to Meta, citing “Meta’s lack of transparency.”
Stone declined to say whether the policy change would apply to accounts that are delayed, saying, “The decision will be based on safety considerations.”
Sweeney is also being blackmailed by a lawyer working for music star Taylor Swift. Sweeney said Meta deleted the account tracking the Swift earlier this year.
Jet location information can be obtained in several different ways. The Federal Aviation Administration provides tracking information for many flights, but it also allows some aircraft owners and operators to hide that data from the public. Still, the jet tracking service was able to obtain the celebrity’s flight information using hardware that intercepts each jet’s unique signal output, according to Business Jet Traveler.
