Jack Sweeney says Meta suspended Instagram and Threads accounts tracking celebrities' private jets, including Zuckerberg's; Meta cites a “risk of physical harm”
The removals echo Twitter’s 2022 suspension of roughly 30 accounts that shared jet locations from public data, including ElonJet, establishing a cross-platform precedent for treating location aggregation as a safety issue. Twitter’s earlier jet-tracker suspensions provide the closest comparison.
Threads was launched as Meta’s alternative to Twitter/X, with an early emphasis on attracting creators and celebrities. That makes enforcement affecting celebrity-tracking accounts consequential for both Instagram and the newer text platform. Meta’s creator-focused Threads launch plan
First-order effects
Jack Sweeney’s affected Instagram and Threads accounts lose distribution and access on Meta’s platforms, while Meta removes public-facing tracking of Zuckerberg and other celebrities from those services.
Meta formalizes, at least in this case, a safety-based rationale for restricting accounts that compile and publish private-jet movements.
Second-order effects
Other jet-tracking publishers and accounts built around public location data may face greater moderation uncertainty on Meta services, particularly when their targets are high-profile individuals.
The decision gives critics of such accounts a platform-enforcement precedent, while raising pressure on Meta to apply its physical-harm rationale consistently across similar accounts and targets.
Third-order effects
If major social platforms continue converging on safety-based limits for location aggregation, access to publicly available movement data could increasingly depend on platform policy rather than solely on whether the source data is public.
The recurring conflict points to a durable moderation boundary between public-data reporting and real-time personal-safety risk; where platforms draw it will shape the viability of tracker-style accounts.
The trend: Social platforms are increasingly treating the aggregation and amplification of public location data as a safety-moderation problem, especially when it concerns prominent individuals.
It appears Meta has suspended the Elon Musk jet tracking accounts on Instagram and Threads. No apparent expiation either.
@jacksweeney
Jack Sweeney on threads
Kim K, Celeb Jets, Zuck, Kylie Jenner, Bill Gates, Bezos all suspended today. The political ones are the only ones left!!! Quite strange.
@drewharwell
Drew Harwell on threads
We just maybe can't share the info on Threads, where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what'll be trending tomorrow. Got it. Help us understand the rule, since I haven't seen it explained: Can I say that Elon Musk's jet land…
@andymstone
Andy Stone on threads
None of the impacted accounts are cited in the linked stories. Are you trying to give the impression that Meta's steps will prevent the Post from doing this kind of reporting? *"The Post obtained the flight data from an industry official..." *" …
@kalihays1
Kali Hays on threads
Meta spox said these accounts were removed for “violating our privacy policy” and they pointed to an Oversight Board advisory decision about “private information.” The thing is, the advisory is about posting personal addresses, photos of residences, that kind of thing. …
@jacksweeney
Jack Sweeney on threads
It's wild how tracking public info can be so controversial, my flight tracking accounts on Instagram and Threads hadn't violated rules for years. The only account that was suspended before yesterday was the Taylor Swifts jet tracking account, when Swifts team requested Meta to r…
@jacksweeney
Jack Sweeney on threads
Meta told TechCrunch: “Given the risk of physical harm to individuals, and in keeping with the independent Oversight Board's recommendation, we've disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy”
@mac_ryan_
Ryan Mac on threads
As an update: A Meta spokesperson has not responded to my question about why the account was taken down. And since then @jacksweeney, the account's creator, is saying that Threads and Instagram accounts that tracked the jets of Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, Bill Gates and other…
@jacksweeney
Jack Sweeney on threads
ADS-B flight tracking data is not encrypted!! Making it public!
@drewharwell
Drew Harwell on threads
What kind of public data will Meta block next? — How we've used flight trackers to report on important people: — * To track Trump's emergency landing: https://wapo.st/3HGp8IA * To map how military helicopters buzzed George Floyd protests: https://wapo.st/3V3WRie * To report…
@jacksweeney
Jack Sweeney on threads
What I mean by the Jack Dorsey comment is that even BlueSky isn't good enough—Jack himself left the BlueSky board. Nostr is really the only viable option at this point. We keep facing the same fundamental issues.
@mac_ryan_
Ryan Mac on threads
As a reminder, this is publicly available information. These accounts just help present the info to a wider audience. And one could very much argue that knowing the whereabouts of the planes of a presidential candidate and a major donor who is stumping for said candidate two we…
@antonian2024
Tony Healy on threads
Does anyone else get the sense that Zuck has completely red-pilled himself and is now following Musk into the fascism rabbit hole? It seems to have accelerated in the past six months.
@reckless1280
Nilay Patel on threads
We live in the dumbest possible era of content moderation https://www.theverge.com/...
@brittainforsenate
Craig R. Brittain on threads
Meta is now systematically suspending every jet tracker. They suspended Elon Musk's tracker today, and previously they suspended the ones for Taylor Swift and Mark Zuckerberg. These profiles are based on publicly available information which can be found from a variety of source…
@jacksweeney
Jack Sweeney on threads
All of them except for Trump and DeSantis are suspended.
r/ElonJetTracker
r on reddit
Meta suspends accounts tracking private jets of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other celebrities