Skip to main content

Twitter suspends Mastodon’s account, making a good case for Mastodon

A day after Twitter crafted a new policy to explain its decision to ban an account that tracks Elon Musk’s private jet, the fallout continues.

Twitter apparently suspended its open source competitor Mastodon from the service on Thursday afternoon. Just prior to its suspension, Mastodon (@joinmastodon) tweeted a link to the jet tracking account on its own service, according to archives.

Screenshot of Mastodon's Twitter account

Image Credits: Twitter/WaybackMachine

The now-banned Twitter account @ElonJet belongs to Florida student Jack Sweeney, who also operates a number of other flight-tracking bots that curate flight information from public data. Sweeney’s personal account was also suspended from Twitter along with many of the bots, including one that issued updates on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In early November, Musk struck a different tone about the account but he’s since backtracked, adjusting Twitter’s platform policies in light of his personal preferences. “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” he tweeted. That tweet is now accompanied by community notes explaining the @ElonJet saga.

Musk’s personal and political preferences have guided a number of Twitter policy decisions since the company’s hands-on new owner took over. While Musk initially declared that Twitter would allow any content that isn’t illegal, he’s since disallowed specific accounts for personal reasons.

Musk reinstated a wave of high-profile Nazis and white supremacists earlier this month but drew the line at Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, citing his personal experience of fatherhood.

On Mastodon, a federated, open source Twitter alternative, a single individual can’t set the rules for the whole platform. Mastodon’s servers — separate but open instances of the social network — are run by individuals who can set rules, but users can also decamp to a different server if they don’t agree with those choices.

Twitter suspends Mastodon’s account, making a good case for Mastodon by Taylor Hatmaker originally published on TechCrunch



source https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-suspends-mastodon-twitter-account-over-elonjet-tracking/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Apple’s AI Push: Everything We Know About Apple Intelligence So Far

Apple’s WWDC 2025 confirmed what many suspected: Apple is finally making a serious leap into artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” the suite of AI-powered tools, enhancements, and integrations marks the company’s biggest software evolution in a decade. But unlike competitors racing to plug AI into everything, Apple is taking a slower, more deliberate approach — one rooted in privacy, on-device processing, and ecosystem synergy. If you’re wondering what Apple Intelligence actually is, how it works, and what it means for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re in the right place. This article breaks it all down.   What Is Apple Intelligence? Let’s get the terminology clear first. Apple Intelligence isn’t a product — it’s a platform. It’s not just a chatbot. It’s a system-wide integration of generative AI, machine learning, and personal context awareness, embedded across Apple’s OS platforms. Think of it as a foundational AI layer stitched into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and m...

The Silent Revolution of On-Device AI: Why the Cloud Is No Longer King

Introduction For years, artificial intelligence has meant one thing: the cloud. Whether you’re asking ChatGPT a question, editing a photo with AI tools, or getting recommendations on Netflix — those decisions happen on distant servers, not your device. But that’s changing. Thanks to major advances in silicon, model compression, and memory architecture, AI is quietly migrating from giant data centres to the palm of your hand. Your phone, your laptop, your smartwatch — all are becoming AI engines in their own right. It’s a shift that redefines not just how AI works, but who controls it, how private it is, and what it can do for you. This article explores the rise of on-device AI — how it works, why it matters, and why the cloud’s days as the centre of the AI universe might be numbered. What Is On-Device AI? On-device AI refers to machine learning models that run locally on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or edge device — without needing constant access to the cloud. In practi...

Max Q: Psyche(d)

In this issue: SpaceX launches NASA asteroid mission, news from Relativity Space and more. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/h6Kjrde via IFTTT