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Elon Musk has entered the chat.
“Sweeney is a horrible human being,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post by journalist Ian Miles Cheong about the news. “Taylor Swift is right to be worried.”
Sweeney told Business Insider via text message that Musk’s post was typical of the billionaire.
“Why does he get involved in literally everything?” Sweeney said.
The college student brought up his history with Musk in a reply to Musk on X.
“Let’s remember that you offered me a 5k to stop,” Sweeney wrote. “He also threatened to sue me and here we are, a year later.”
Musk’s comment came after it emerged that Swift’s lawyer sent Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter in December, asking him to stop “stalking and harassing behavior.”
“While this may be a game for you, or an avenue you hope will bring you wealth or fame, it is a matter of life and death for our Client,” the letter said. “Ms. Swift has dealt with stalkers and others who wish to harm her.”
Sweeney told BI that he never intended to harm the people whose planes he tracks, but created the accounts because he believes in “transparency and public information.”
Sweeney, a college student at the University of Central Florida, first made headlines on his countless social media accounts when, in 2021, Musk offered him $5,000 to delete his @elonjet profile, which posted private jet updates. of the billionaire.
Sweeney also had social media accounts that tracked the location of the private jets of other ultra-rich people like Swift, Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerburg.
Some celebrities, including Musk and Swift, have attempted to hide their private jet travel by using privacy programs run by the Federation Aviation Administration, but this only works with websites that use FAA data, such as FlightAware and Flightradar24.
Websites like ADS-B exchangeHowever, they rely on public data sources, leaving a loophole for aircraft trackers like Sweeney.
“You should have a decent expectation that your plane will be tracked whether I do it or not. After all, it’s public information,” Sweeney told BI in response to Swift’s legal threat.