Drew HarwellDec 16, 2022
One point I do want to make clear: Twitter is Elon Musk's website. He paid all that money and can ban whoever he wants. It's his right, just like it's our right to point out when he's spreading bad information and contradicting himself.
Show threadDrew HarwellDec 16, 2022

Because Elon has continuously misrepresented this:

The data used for flight-tracking accounts like ElonJet - called ADS-B data - are transmitted from nearly every plane in the sky.

The signals are unencrypted, and anyone with a $20 RTL-SDR radio can pick them up. Aviation hobbyists gather the data and put them on websites like ADS-B Exchange.

It's publicly available, legally acquired data of the kind Elon Musk said he'd allow, until suddenly he no longer did.

Show threadWANDERING🏴‍☠️LENS
@drewharwell Furthermore, ADS-B doesn't broadcast who is on the plane, where they're sitting on the plane, what cargo the plane is carrying, or any other telemetry like fuel load, fluid levels, engine temperature, battery voltage or anything aside from "this plane, which is owned by X, is at Y altitude at a speed of Z knots, and is located at these approximate GPS coordinates." It's even more essential for information about private planes to remain public because of its inestimable value to air safety investigators.
Dec 16, 2022 at 10:55pmWeb