Elon Musk's Assassination Coordinates

About

Elon Musk's Assassination Coordinates refers to a contentious tweet sent by Twitter CEO Elon Musk in December 2022 that gave his reasoning for suspending two accounts (@ElonJet and @CelebJets) that tracked and publicly documented the flight paths of his private jet and other celebrities. Musk's defense was that the account was violating Twitter's terms of service by doxxing his real-time location, which he dubbed his "assassination coordinates." The tweet led to controversy and memes with many labeling Musk as paranoid or as a hypocrite based on his push for free speech on Twitter following his acquisition of the company in October of that year.

Origin

Since at least November 2021, Musk had been in communication with Florida college student Jack Sweeney who started the account ElonJets to track the flight paths of Musk's private jet in June 2020.^[1] In mid-December 2022, what was dubbed the ElonJet Doxxing Controversy surfaced on Twitter following Musk (the then-recent CEO of Twitter) banning the ElonJets account citing security concerns amidst a reported stalking event involving his child X Æ A-12 in November.^[2]

Amid the controversy and directly following the suspension of ElonJets on December 15th, 2022, Musk posted to Twitter^[3] a reply within a longer thread about journalists he'd suspended on the platform for sharing ElonJets information. The reply read, "They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service." The tweet received roughly 65,700 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Spread

After Musk sent the tweet, multiple reactions surfaced in the replies. For instance, on December 15th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user FutureBoy tweeted, "I'll take 'things that didn't happen but let me silence my critics' for $44 billion, Alex," in reference to an imagined Jeopardy! question, gaining roughly 17,900 likes in less than a day. Then, Twitter^[5] user jpol1313 added to the thread, writing, "He came closer to dying from humiliation at the Chapelle show than from any assassin," in reference to Musk getting booed at a Dave Chapelle show the week prior. The reply received over 6,000 likes in less than a day (entire thread shown below).

Many on Twitter started using the phrase "assassination coordinates" out of context in memes and tweets that made fun of Musk's paranoia and criticized him for his apparent hypocrisy. For instance, on December 15th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user salgentile made a joke about the phonebook company The Yellow Pages in a tweet reading, "hard to believe there was once a time where they’d send a big yellow book to everyone’s house listing yours and everyone else’s assassination coordinates," gaining roughly 104,700 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Some on Twitter took Musk's side, defending his choice and use of the term "assassination coordinates." For instance, on December 15th, Twitter^[7] user DavidSacks tweeted, "According to @cnn, a threat to safety occurs when you criticize someone they like, but not when you publish real-time assassination coordinates of someone they don’t," gaining roughly 15,700 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). Others continued to criticize and clown Musk in funny tweets, like Twitter^[8] user samfbiddle on December 15th who wrote, "you'd think you'd stop voluntarily taking a mode of transportation that's legally required to broadcast assassination coordinates," gaining roughly 20,600 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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External References