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Elonjet is in the air transmitting ADSB. From what I remember it’s a Gulfstream that flies higher and faster than anything commercial. A would-be attacker using this data wouldn’t be able to get anywhere elonjet is destined for before elonjet.
Elon almost certainly has armored vehicles that can protect against any small arms fire and entire teams of security at each source and destination that almost certainly secret service-esque secure the area in advance. He also likely has security that secures the plane at rest.
So he arrives at the source/destination and likely goes directly to a secured hangar for the movement between armored road vehicles and the plane.
What are we worried about here, someone with an RPG, Stinger, or maybe a .50 cal in some advantaged position? Someone planting an IED on the route, runway, etc? Any sophisticated and determined actor who would be able to deploy such means could definitely get the location data with or without a Twitter bot.
Meanwhile he’s regularly at Twitter HQ, Tesla, his favorite restaurants, his kids go to schools, etc. People walk around in the open…
Elonjet is almost certainly the strongest and most secure aspect of his and his family’s life. If some murderous wacko (or group) wanted to go after him or his family there are much “easier” ways to harm, kidnap, etc.
This almost certainly has to be about wealth and power exceptionalism that essentially says “I didn’t buy a Gulfstream AND Twitter so people can track MY jet on MY platform".
If he flies random routes, that’s true, but I doubt he does. You could figure out where he flies regularly, move there, and prepare your ambush.
Having real-time data adds that you can tie it to your alarm clock, and better time your final preparations. You wouldn’t have to suspiciously camp out for hours at an airport, for example, getting tired and risking discovery.
Now, is that significant? Maybe, if he’s paranoid enough to put a lot of variation in his flight patterns, but I doubt it. Also, as you say, “Any sophisticated and determined actor who would be able to deploy such means could definitely get the location data with or without a Twitter bot.”
I am genuinely trying to understand the "security risk" argument for this move. At the risk of the internet classic "I have a friend..." I do have a retired Army Special Forces (Green Beret) friend who's former "co-workers" I've met do high profile executive protection and have described what their work looks like because it's obviously fascinating - that's where I got this general "security playbook" from. They literally adapt head of state, diplomat, etc active warzone-level security measures for their services.
It's been mentioned by guests on the Joe Rogan podcast that even at his level he's surrounded by former elite-level military security at all times. Comments like "Wow, when I got to the studio today I wasn't expecting there to be Navy SEALs everywhere".
I still believe, all things considered, that elonjet almost certainly has to be the most secure aspect of movement for Elon and his family.
Besides which, taking the "scenic route" while flying completely defeats the point of flying being the most direct way to get from point A to point B. Hence the front loading of the airport security model.
You do as little "in air" security as possible, because that crap is horrifyingly expensive because physics.
A missile defense system was announced for Gulfstream aircraft at a cost of about $3.5m[0], which for a ~$65m aircraft isn't really that expensive...
[0] - https://www.aerospaceonline.com/doc/farnborough-gulfstream-o...
The rules should be simple and the same for everyone.
- Have free speech, so you can argue for OR against any idea (abortion, immigration, LGBT, cryptos, whatever);
- Harassment, abuse, threats, doxxing, etc. are not tolerated against anyone.
Before the narrative changed with this incident, you would have been accused of stochastic terrorism.
2. Said picture of a car was location-traced by someone involved with Bellingcat to be extremely far away from any nearby airports; Musk suggests that someone was tailgating the car in question from the airport if I recall, but this would be absurd and not really possible given the distance. If the incident happened to begin with, it was most likely unrelated to ElonJet. He's blatantly using an incident with his child to ban an account he personally doesn't like.
To be clear, it's his full right to do this, but there's some irony in how the guy bloviating about free speech absolutism for weeks on end changes tune to "only the speech I like" the second he finds an excuse to do so.
Also going after journalists reporting on this is pathetic, not to mention shows a blatant disregard for freedom of the press, and as history has shown us time and time again, getting a journalist to shut up tends to just make them more vocal because of the Streisand Effect. More people than ever know about ElonJet than before he banned it and his repeated attempts to prevent people from linking to Mastodon.social and other big Mastodon instances because that's where the ElonJet guy went have only caused more reporting on it.
He posted a video of the guy, his car, and his license plate
This is demonstrably false; last I checked, Elon didn't even file a police report.
> Sweeney said he hasn't received any notification of legal action, and the last time his bot tweeted anything was Dec. 12, "which is not last night, so I don’t get how that’s connected.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/twitter-suspe...