Twitter CEO Elon Musk said a car carrying his two-year-old son, named X AE A-XII, was harassed by a “crazy stalker” in Los Angeles Tuesday night and he released a video of the incident.
Musk blames the real-time location tracking hobbyists on Twitter for tracking him and his family and apparently endangering them.
The incident resulted in a new Twitter policy under which several high-profile journalists and others have now been banned from the platform, apparently inspiring a reversal in Musk’s tolerance of an account that continuously tweeted the whereabouts of his private jet.
He said the accounts had “posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates,” adding that “legal action is being taken against” the jet-tracking account creator and “organizations who supported harm to my family.”
Musk said a stalker followed the “car carrying lil X” through LA, later blocking the car from moving and climbing on its hood. He posted a brief video showing a hooded, masked man inside a car, which he claimed was the stalker.
Musk apparently posted the video to justify Twitter’s new policy against sharing other people’s locations in real time. The policy saw CNN, New York Times and Washington Post journalists banned from the platform Thursday, as well as an account tracking his personal jet he had previously pledged to let stand as proof of his “commitment to free speech.”
Some Twitter users called out Musk’s U-turn as evidence of a flexible, self-centered stance on free speech. He faced similar criticism last month when he announced a new ban on “impersonation” accounts after several celebrities made their accounts into lookalikes of his own.
On Thursday night, Musk tweeted a poll asking whether to unsuspend the accounts who posted his location “now” or “in 7 days.” When viewed on Friday morning, 58.5 percent of voters had picked “Now.”
X AE A-XII, nicknamed X, is Musk’s second child with the singer known as Grimes and one of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s 10 children.
