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He is probably trying to take down the flight-tracking bot (https://www.protocol.com/elon-musk-flight-tracker https://www.protocol.com/elon-musk-flight-tracker)
by ahiknsr 5y ago
He is probably trying to take down the flight-tracking bot (https://www.protocol.com/elon-musk-flight-tracker https://www.protocol.com/elon-musk-flight-tracker). Funny how he talks about Free speech on twitter while actively trying to take down a twitter account.
- panick21_ 5y agoWhat? Why would he care about that?
- jwozn 5y agoI don't think he would try to take it down like OP, but he did offer the owner of the account $5K to take it down, citing security issues. See: https://www.protocol.com/elon-musk-flight-tracker https://www.protocol.com/elon-musk-flight-tracker.
- enraged_camel 5y agoI think the tracking bot goes quite a bit further than simply being free speech.
- jwozn 5y agoCan you elaborate? The bot is collecting and publishing public information.
- fleddr 5y agoYet clearly targeting a single aircraft with a single high profile user. The fact that the information is public is not a perfect defense, by combining public information, clearly associating it to an individual, and publishing this to a large audience, you can create a sizable threat.
- enraged_camel 5y agoYep, pretty much. I'm really disappointed in the way the HN crowd seems utterly unable to see beyond "it's free speech!" when it comes to situations like this.
- jakelazaroff 5y agoI generally agree, but this is really not the horse I’d hitch my wagon to. They’re publishing public information about the richest person in the world! He absolutely deserves far more scrutiny than you or me.
- simonh 5y agoScrutiny yes, stalking no and this is getting uncomfortably close to the latter. I understand the argument that this could be used to show potentially dubious behaviour, but that could already be shown from the flight records if it occurred without publishing live details of every single flight. That's simply not necessary.
- jakelazaroff 5y agoI disagree. The issue with stalking is that it’s threatening. I don’t think Elon is in any way threatened by this.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- cma 5y agoThe flight tracking data is also partially a public good. Didn't it show him asking workers to come in against California sherrif's office order and then fleeing in plane so he couldn't be arrested in California (from early pandemic, might be remembering some details wrong), essentially asking his employees to face jail while dodging any chance of it for himself? That may still not outweigh the privacy concerns.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- JaimeThompson 5y agoMusk claims to believe in absolute unlimited free speech so he shouldn't have a problem with such tracking.
- logicalmonster 5y ago> He is probably trying to take down the flight-tracking bot Anything is possible, but this doesn't make a whole lot of sense given that it would have cost him just $50K to do it rather than the price to purchase 9.2% of Twitter. > Funny how he talks about Free speech on twitter while actively trying to take down a twitter account. "Actively trying to take down a twitter account" is a hallucination at this time.
- badRNG 5y agoEither way he has consistently used heavy-handed tactics to silence the speech of those he disagrees with. From attempting to destroy the life of a whistle-blower [0] (seriously, take time to read this article) to cancelling the order of a blogger who made negative remarks about him [1] to firing anyone who disagrees with him [2], Musk is a man that repeatedly abuses his power to silence anyone's speech he dislikes. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-13/when-elon-musk-tried-to-destroy-tesla-whistleblower-martin-tripp https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-13/when-elon... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/03/elon-musk-personally-cancels-rude-customers-tesla-order.html https://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/03/elon-musk-personally-cancels... [2] https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/elon-musk-ruthlessly-cleaned-house-of-any-tesla-workers-who-disagreed-or-got-in-his-way-a-new-book-says/articleshow/85016138.cms https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/elon-musk-ruthle...
- nimbius 5y agobuying a seat at the court of public opinion would certainly allow one to press for rosier dispositions, albeit 9% is far from the standing of grand arbiter.
- badRNG 5y agoHe's Twitter's largest shareholder, holding 4x the number of shares held by Jack: https://www.ft.com/content/29b9c884-02d7-4d1c-a4ab-c862242fa76e https://www.ft.com/content/29b9c884-02d7-4d1c-a4ab-c862242fa...
- alsodumb 5y agoAnyone who thinks he is doing it to remove the flight tracker is dumb. It is literally based on open-source data and anyone who can be a threat to Elon can likely access it without following that Twitter account.
- H8crilA 5y agoIndeed, there is no stopping this in the current global aviation regime. This might be a good opportunity to advertise ADS-B data collection: websites like flightradar24, flightaware, adsbexchange are powered by thousands of volunteers that collect and upload ADS-B radio transmissions broadcasted by aircraft. Most of the collection goes through an RTL-SDR dongle, so if you have a raspberry pi or some other machine that's up 24/7 - consider contributing! Minimal radio kit for signal reception (RTL-SDR+simple antenna) costs somewhere around USD50. It's also a good entry point for learning SDR and radio in general.
- bombcar 5y agoHow do you join in? Is there a way to see if "your area" isn't well covered?
- zimmund 5y agoEven if your area has coverage, adding radios increases resilience and may help triangulate the position of aircraft in other radio modes. You can also check the data yourself instead of depending on commercial sites, e.g. with tar1090.
- H8crilA 5y agoFrom adsbexchange FAQ (https://www.adsbexchange.com/faq/ https://www.adsbexchange.com/faq/) > Q: I live in XYZ, can you use another feeder there? Where can I see if you need more coverage in my area? Etc. > A: The answer is simple. If you live on planet earth, yes, ADSBexchange.com could use a feeder at your location. The map may look like you see aircraft in your area, but the truth is you can’t see what you can’t see. To detect aircraft with MLAT, we need a minimum of 4 feeders to receive data and the more receivers see it the better the MLAT accuracy. If an aircraft is low altitude, feeders may have to be within a few miles. I would also add what each individual site will not say explicitly: with a little bit of Linux configuration skills it's easy to upload to multiple aggregators at once.
- zakk 5y agoFree speech does not mean that private and personal data can be made public. Posting your bank account statement on Twitter is not free speech.
- t0suj4 5y agoPublishing distasteful things or things we don't agree with is free speech. If saying anything wasn't a problem we wouldn't even think of the concept of free speech. Twitter is not free speech platform and that is okay.
- SketchySeaBeast 5y agoIf your bank account statement was publicly available would it be though? Because that's where they are getting the flight records they are rebroadcasting.
- wonderwonder 5y agoNo, free speech just means that the government does not restrict your speech, it has nothing to do with what a private corporation does. Twitter can censor anything it wants and it does not impede free speech at all.
- zakk 5y agoYour are mixing up the first amendment with the broader idea of free speech. The 1A (roughly speaking) limits the scope of the Government as not too limit free speech. Twitter, as a private company, is not restricted by the first amendment. However, one can note that Twitter does not allow free speech. This is quite important from a legal standpoint, because since Twitter practices censorship of ideas they don’t like, they are no longer considered a common carrier. There are huge legal ramifications of this!
- londons_explore 5y agoIf he didn't want to be tracked, he would hire a different jet each time he wanted to fly. That way nobody would know he was aboard.
- InCityDreams 5y agoIve often wondered if air force 1 is always full of president.
- jedberg 5y agoIt is. It has a different call sign when it flies without the President.
- SketchySeaBeast 5y agoTo catch you in a bit of pedantry, "Air Force 1" is the designation of any aircraft the president is on, so technically, yes? If the vice-president is flying I think it's called "Air Force 2".
- keiferski 5y agoA modern take on an old classic: is the plane Air Force One because the president is onboard, or is the president onboard because it's Air Force One? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma
- hef19898 5y agoEvery aircraft carrying the President is Air Force One, every helicopter carrying him is Marine One. Even if it would be a US Airways flight from Baltimore to Chicago.
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- fallingknife 5y agoThat guy asked for $50K to take it down. If that's what he wanted, he would have paid $50K, not billions.
- hutzlibu 5y agoAnd then pay again the next guy. And the next guy. And the next guy.
- belter 5y agoDespite the overwhelming evidence of horrifying massacres done by Russian troops in Ukraine, Twitter is a sea of Russian accounts, showing alternative stories. How the killing and rape of 10 year old children discovered today, were done by Azov regiments and not by the retreating Russian troops. If he is the majority shareholder, and still has apparently free time for another venture, maybe he probably should start there, instead of his own peeves with Twitter. https://www.reddit.com/r/UkrainianConflict/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UkrainianConflict/
- yywwbbn 5y agoIt sounds as if you’re complaining about Russian troops being massacred in Ukraine themselves. It should be ‘massacres by Russian troops’ (I assume)
- belter 5y agoDumb me...corrected. Thanks. Honestly, was a bit disturbed by some of the photographic evidence I have seen today.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]