Elon Musk Posts Video of Black-Masked Individual Who Allegedly Stalked Car With Son Inside

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks about new Autopilot features during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, Calif., on Oct. 14, 2015. Beck Diefenbach/Reuters

Twitter owner Elon Musk wrote on Wednesday that a car carrying his son in Los Angeles was allegedly followed by a “crazy stalker” before releasing a video of the alleged perpetrator and his vehicle.

The video posted by Musk showed a male wearing a black mask and hoodie, driving a white Hyundai sedan. The person did not say anything and held up a phone as if recording a video.

“Last night, car carrying lil X (his son) in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood,” Musk wrote, without providing more details. It’s not clear if Musk or other family members filed a complaint. “Anyone recognize this person or car?” he also asked.

When another user asked if the person is “the guy that jumped in the hood?” the Tesla CEO replied, “Yeah.”

Musk drew criticism, however, for posting a video of the man wearing a mask and his car—which included the license plate number—when it was not clear whether he was the individual who allegedly jumped on the car. Musk has about 120 million followers on the platform.

It came as Musk announced that he would be taking “legal action” against Jack Sweeney, who runs the “ElonJet” account that tracks the movement of his private jet. Also around the same time, he announced a new policy around “doxxing,” or the practice of revealing an individual’s location or real identity.

“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Musk announced. “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.”

Twitter Rule Change

Users on Thursday noted that the company changed its policy around publishing private information without another user’s permission or authorization.

“We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so. In addition, you may not share private media, such as images or videos of private individuals, without their consent,” the December 2022 rule states. “However, we recognize that there are instances where users may share images or videos of private individuals, who are not public figures, as part of a newsworthy event or to further public discourse on issues or events of public interest. In such cases, we may allow the media to remain on the platform.”

It’s not clear if this policy would apply to news reports that reveal the real names of individuals who run anonymous accounts. Earlier this year, several reporters attempted to reveal the name of the individual who runs the popular “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account.

For media outlets, the rules say, that if the media is publicly available or is being covered by mainstream media, the media and “the accompanying tweet text add value to the public discourse or are shared in public interest, it has eyewitness accounts or in-person reports from developing events, or the subject of the media is a public figure then they will not be violation of Twitter’s rules.”

Sweeney Responds

Twitter’s note to Sweeney—who ran the “ElonJet” account—said that “you may not use Twitter’s services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter,” according to The Associated Press.

Sweeney had days earlier accused Musk’s Twitter of using a filtering technique to hide his tweets, and revealed what he said were leaked internal communications showing a Twitter content-moderation executive in charge of the Trust and Safety division ordering her team to suppress the account’s reach.

Sweeney previously said he originally started the Musk jet tracker because “I was interested in him as a fan of Tesla and SpaceX.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.