Almost a year ago now, in Genbeta we echoed the story of Jack Sweeney, a young man who had created a bot capable of broadcasting via Twitter all the movements of Elon Musk’s private plane…and how he had offered him $5,000 in exchange for eliminating him because he “didn’t enjoy the idea that some nutcase might end up shooting him.”
Sweeney (who maintains similar bots to track the planes of Gates, Trump, Bezos and various *text muted*n billionaires) He did not accept that offer from Musk thenand today the account of @ElonJet continues to broadcast the air activity of the same. But, of course, in recent weeks a fundamental change has taken place…
…Twitter, the social network where @ElonJet posts his updates, has been acquired by Elon Musk himself. He made explicit reference to this ‘conflict of interest’ at the beginning of November:
“My commitment to free speech even extends to not banning the account that follows my planealthough that is a direct risk to personal safety.”
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
HOW TO DOWNLOAD VIDEOS from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or TikTok to your MOBILE
I don’t delete it, but it can’t be seen
However, it has now come to light that Musk might not have been as consistent with his commitment as it seemed. And it is that Sweeney has made public a message in the internal forum (Slack) of Twitter, dated December 2, in which Ella Irwin, the vice president of Twitter responsible for the ‘Trust and security’ team gave the order to apply “immediately” a ‘strong VF’ to the @ElonJet account.
Screenshots show Ella Irwin VP at Twitter Trust and Safety requesting elonjet to have heavy VF (visibility filtering) pic.twitter.com/ehHJpo4zQR
—Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney) December 11, 2022
‘VF’ stands for ‘visibility filtering’ or ‘visibility filtering’. It is a way that, without blocking or deleting the account, Twitter is capable of reducing its visibility, making it not appear in searches and that it ceases to be labeled by other users, among other measures.
Did you know that @elonjet is it de-amplified?
You can’t keyword search the account or tag the account through suggested usernames.
I’m unsure if this is new due to Elon’s purchase or something that’s been in place, but it is interesting. pic.twitter.com/jIdMpS6cep— ChudsOfTikTok (@ChudsOfTikTok) December 9, 2022
The document with the screenshot has been leaked, according to Sweeney, by an ‘anonymous Twitter employee’ (possibly one of the many fired from the company after day 2), who advised her that her account was ‘severely restricted’ internally. Of course, after Sweeney’s tweets denouncing the situation began to spread, bot account ‘visibility filtering’ measures have apparently been rectified:
It appears @ElonJet is longer banned or hidden in anyway. I think Twitter noticed my tweets and back tracked. Guilty in my book. pic.twitter.com/MRxVbPaXxS
—Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney) December 12, 2022
Via | Teslarati
