Twitter’s New Rules Around Live Location Sharing Could Open Up New Avenues for Political Censorship
After hanging his free speech credentials on his merciful inaction against an account that tweeted the live location of his private jet – which he had tried to get removed in the past – Elon Musk has now reversed course and banned the @ElonJet account, while also overseeing an update in Twitter’s platform policies that will outlaw live location tracking entirely.
Which could be problematic, in various ways.
First, on the rule change – following an incident involving his young son, Elon Musk decided that enough was enough, and called on his team to implement new rules around location tracking.
As explained by Twitter:
“When someone shares an individual’s live location on Twitter, there is an increased risk of physical harm. Moving forward, we’ll remove Tweets that share this information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.”