New Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted that he was at the FIFA World Cup Qatar final after he had threatened to suspend the accounts of journalists who he claimed were tracking his whereabouts.
His personal beef with the media started specifically with the @ElonJet Twitter account, which revealed the Tesla CEO's personal jet's location using publicly available flight records filed with the FAA.
Musk subsequently suspended high-profile accounts that shared links from @ElonJet, including the account of Twitter's competitor, Mastodon.
On December 14, he had warned about the consequences of publicly giving away anyone's identifiable information, or doxxing, in real-time.
"Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation."
"This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info."
"Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok."
On Sunday, Musk tweeted his own location in real-time.
\u201cAt World Cup right now\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
Despite the South African billionaire's vexatious promotion of privacy protection, social media users were quick to call out his hypocrisy after he tweeted about being in Doha for the World Cup final match between France and Argentina.
\u201cupset about her tracking but posted his own location lol\u201d— bizcochito (@bizcochito) 1671376177
\u201cIt appears @elonmusk has posted real time coordinates of the individual\u2019s shown in this video. I believe this is now against the Twitter terms of service.\u201d— Jordan \u00b9\u2070\u00b3 (@Jordan \u00b9\u2070\u00b3) 1671375855
People did a double take.
\u201c@elonmusk This you?\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201c@elonmusk Are you sharing your location in real-time?\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201c@elonmusk Is this real-time continuous doxxing?\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
Users thought there ought to be consequences for his tweet.
\u201c@elonmusk You should suspend yourself for revealing your location\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201c@elonmusk You just doxxed yourself\u2026 suspension!!!\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201c@elonmusk BREAKING: World Cup permanently suspended.\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201cCan\u2019t believe Elon just doxxed his own real time location. Now he\u2019s going to have to ban his own account lmao\u201d— Keelan (@Keelan) 1671375846
\u201c@elonmusk We need to delete your account\u2026. Your giving your exact location\u2026. How dare you!\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
Twitter was left shaking its head.
\u201c@GoodTroubleShow @elonmusk Amazing how it 180\u2019s to a non-life-threatening situation when one publicly announces their own assassination coordinates\ud83d\ude43\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201c@elonmusk Elon doxing himself after suspending people that did it a few days ago wins \u201cTroll of the Week\u201d lol \ud83d\udc4d\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201c@elonmusk .@elonmusk \n \nI thought sharing your real-time location info was against your new rules. \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
\u201c@elonmusk suspend yourself for doxxing your live location, this post is a security threat to you\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671375239
The rules he makes on Twitter are his to break but don't hold your breath for an account suspension any time soon.