Why Elon Musk Offered Jack Sweeney $5k To Delete Flight Tracking Twitter Account? Explained
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Elon Musk cited fears for his personal safety as the reason for offering $5,000 to a tech-savvy teenager Jack Sweeney to shut down an account that tracked his private jets.
Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old college student, contacted Elon Musk last November in a message regarding the account [ElonJet], which provides regular updates on well-known figures’ flights using publicly available data. The Post reviewed direct messages sent by Musk, which were first reported by Protocol.
“Can you take this down? Musk wrote to him in a direct message on Twitter dated Nov. 30 that it is a security risk.
More messages were exchanged between Musk and Sweeney, who demanded details about how Sweeney set up the bots and how much profit he made through their use. Musk ultimately offered to delete Sweeney’s account for $5,000.
Check out the other planes including the second SpaceX Jet! https://t.co/B7S3oE6D2j
— Elon Musk's Jet (@ElonJet) September 26, 2020
Who is Jack Sweeney?
Being able to communicate with one of the world’s richest people via Instagram DMs is not exactly what a typical 19-year-old would do.
Jack Sweeney replied the next morning to the text message at 12:00 am. “Yes I can but it’ll cost me a Model 3 only joking unless you don’t mind”.
The purpose of this account is to track the location of Elon Musk’s jets. There are currently 106K followers following @ElonJets.
Other than @ElonJet, Sweeney has 15 other accounts, each programmed to tweet whenever a plane departure or arrival is detected. The targets of these other accounts include tech executives and billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Musk has expressed concern about the dangers of his travel schedule
The founder of Tesla has vocally warned that his travel itinerary being made public could threaten his safety. Especially that of his family. It was actually a Twitter user this month who declared that he would no longer post Musk’s travel plans and schedules so “as to keep Elon and his family safe.”
To this Musk responded that it’s a matter of ‘security.’
Sweeney and Musk talked about business for some time. He was earning about $20,000 a month by himself alone with that account. Sweeney was insistent on getting a better deal and asked if there was a chance to raise that to $50K. He said that his college fees would be greatly reduced. He could perhaps get a Model 3 or even buy a car with the money.
Took off from Hawthorne, Elon got PIA blocking program but already found the aircraft. pic.twitter.com/nOxNUxy5y5
— Elon Musk's Jet (@ElonJet) January 26, 2022
Although the conversation appeared to be on hold, Sweeney is reported to have emailed Musk on January 26, Wednesday. He told Musk that he prefers an internship with Tesla over the cash payout, but Musk appears not to have seen it yet.
The work of Sweeney, however, is legal and does not directly compromise any type of security. The data used by bots is gleaned from publicly available FAA data. In another tweet, the account clarified, “We track the plane, not the passengers.”
Ankita Khanrah
Ankita Khanrah is a second-year student of the Master of Communication and Journalism (Integrated) programme at the School of Mass Communication, KIIT Deemed University, Bhubaneswar.
