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A Florida college student who runs social media accounts that monitor the private jet travel of celebrities and public figures, including Taylor Swift, faces legal action from the pop star’s lawyers.
The student, Jack Sweeney, said cnn on Tuesday he received a cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s lawyers, demanding that he stop posting information about Swift’s flights to his accounts. Washington Post He broke the news first.
Sweeney is no stranger to controversy, having also tracked the movements of billionaire Elon Musk’s planes. Musk closed Sweeney’s “@ElonJet” account in December 2022, claiming it was a “security risk” to him and his family.
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Sweeney, who was allowed to return to X (formerly Twitter), also has accounts that follow the private jets of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and other famous people. He uses publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration and flight signals from aviation enthusiasts to track the flights, and also estimates the carbon emissions of each flight in his publications.
Swift’s attorneys, led by Katie Morrone of Venable LLP, sent Sweeney a letter in December, accusing him of “stalking and harassing behavior, including consistently posting accurate, real-time information about our client’s location and future.” whereabouts to the public on social networks. “
Taylor Swift ‘Imminent Security Threat’
The letter said this posed an “imminent threat to the safety and well-being” of Swift, who has been dealing with stalkers and people who want to harm her since she was a teenager. The letter said there were “many public instances” of people coming to Swift’s homes, some with guns and ammunition, and “attempting to harm him.” The letter argued that sharing her location information gave these bad actors “a roadmap to carry out their plans.”
The letter also mentioned that Musk had offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the Twitter account that tracked his plane. Sweeney rejected this offer and asked for $50,000, saying he could use the money for college or perhaps to buy a Tesla.
The letter said it was a “matter of life and death” for Swift, and that if Sweeney continued to publish information about Swift’s plane travels, she “will have no choice but to pursue all available legal remedies.”
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The Florida college student said he received the letter from Swift’s lawyers after some nonprofits and media outlets criticized the singer’s carbon footprint. Sweeney also said that he meant no harm by her actions and that she was using “public information.”
“I actually think Swift has some good songs,” Sweeney said. However, she said, “I believe in transparency and public information.” Sweeney also said that Swift’s fans were very interested in her accounts and that she should have “a decent expectation” that her jet would be tracked “whether she did it or not.”