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A student who tracks celebrities’ private jets says Taylor Swift’s lawyers have threatened to sue him for sharing her flight information online.
Jack Sweeney uses publicly available data to track the takeoffs and landings of planes belonging to the rich and publishes it a day later.
Tracking amounts to “stalking,” Swift’s lawyers claim.
In 2022, Twitter banned Sweeney after Elon Musk accused him of sharing his “murder coordinates.”
Swift’s attorneys issued a cease-and-desist letter to Sweeney, a 21-year-old student at the University of Central Florida, demanding that he stop sharing the location of his private jet.
The letter, issued in December, says the information represents “an imminent threat to the safety and well-being” of Swift, calling it “a matter of life and death” for her.
He cites numerous stalkers he has dealt with throughout his career and says the data gives criminals “a roadmap to carry out their plans.”
The BBC has not independently reviewed the letter, the contents of which have been reported by US media.
In a statement to the BBC, Sweeney said: “I mean no harm to any party.”
“I actually think Swift has some good songs. I believe in transparency and public information,” he said.
He added that he received the threatening letter after the media began examining Swift’s carbon footprint.
In 2022, Swift topped the list of celebrities with the highest CO2 emissions on private planes, according to digital marketing firm Yard.
The organization found that its plane’s emissions were about 1,185 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.
Last month, a 33-year-old man was arrested on harassment charges outside Swift’s home.
A spokeswoman for Swift told US media that posts about her plane were partly to blame.
“We cannot comment on any ongoing police investigation, but we can confirm that the timing of the stalkers suggests a connection,” spokeswoman Tree Paine said.
“Her posts tell you exactly when and where she would be.”
The BBC has contacted Swift’s lawyers for comment.
Swift’s travel plans have also attracted increased attention from fans in recent months due to her highly publicized concert tour.
On Sunday, she plans to fly to Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend play in the NFL Super Bowl, a day after his concert in Tokyo.
Mr. Sweeney’s post does not provide any information about who is on the planes or where travelers go once they land.
He has also followed the private flights of other wealthy Americans, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.