Elon Musk has made a lot of pretty bad decisions since finalizing his purchase of Twitter (perhaps starting with the purchase itself). His latest change to the social media platform has pissed off a lot of people in the college football world who feel like he’s ruined one of the best aspects of the coaching carousel.
Wednesday, Twitter suspended multiple accounts that track the location of private planes, including the one that specifically tracks Musk’s jet. Musk explained that the accounts violated Twitter’s “doxxing” rules, by releasing non-public information about a person’s whereabouts. Musk then threatened legal action, though his reasoning was confusing and not clarified.
Twitter’s official policy no longer allows sharing of real-time information about a person’s location. While there are certainly a lot of issues with this policy and where, exactly, the line is for what’s permissible, especially in cases of emergencies, college football fans immediately realized that this new policy made it illegal to share information about private jets that might be carrying potential coaching candidates.
Following private jet flights that may or may not mean a coach is en route to a new school to interview is a steadfast part of the wild coaching carousel each year, but now it appears that kind of information will have to return to the message boards from which it came.
We’ll see if this policy remains in place by this time next season, or if Twitter even exists by then, but for now, the college football world is not too pleased with the development.
Elon Musk just killed the best part of the college football coaching carousel. https://t.co/ENTxJL6RFe
— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) December 15, 2022
If Elon also bans flight tracking for coaching changes, he's not prepared for the wrath of college football message boards. https://t.co/VUQlHjHAES
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) December 14, 2022
elon clearly not a college football fan or he would know to get burner jets https://t.co/clWQRsZbp5
— jesse spector (@jessespector) December 15, 2022
So basically, Elon Musk was enraged because some kid did to him what college football fans did during coaching searches 20 years ago, because unlike an SEC athletic director he’s too dumb/vain to hire a charter service?
— Dawg Sports (@dawgsports) December 15, 2022
Elon really wouldn’t last a day on a college football message board
— His Holiness The Margi Lama (@Jerkwheatery) December 14, 2022
[NBC News]
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.