A Florida college student, Jack Sweeney, who maintains social media accounts that track the private jet flights of Taylor Swift and other celebrities has been threatened with legal action by the singer's lawyers.
Swift’s lawyers have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the student, which is a direct order from a court or government agency directing someone to stop engaging in a particular activity. Sweeney has managed the accounts to monitor celebrities' jet usage and calculate their carbon footprints for many years.
The 21-year-old received a Forbes 30 under 30 nomination for his coverage, which makes use of broadcast signals from aircraft and publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Sweeney was accused of "stalking and harassing behaviour" by Swift's lawyers at the Washington-based firm Venable in December after Sweeney tracked Swift's jet activities.
According to the Post, Katie Wright Morrone wrote in the letter: “While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death matter for our Client.
She added there was “no legitimate interest in or public need for this information, other than to stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control”.
Sweeney told the Post that Swift's legal team's letter was probably a scare tactic and was only sent in response to public uproar about the environmental damage that Swift's use of a private jet was causing.
He added that all the information on Swift's jet activity was available to the public and did not provide a full picture of where Swift could be at any given time.
Who is Jack Sweeney?
Jack Sweeney is a University of Central Florida student majoring in information technology, who runs several social media accounts tracking the private jet use of Swift and other public figures, according to the Washington Post. Additionally, he records the approximate quantity of CO2 they emit using public data.
It was Sweeney’s father, an American Airlines technical operations controller, who got him interested in flying. When Sweeney's father commuted from Dallas back to Florida, he would use the information to follow him home.
According to Forbes, Elon Musk blocked Sweeney's "ElonJet" bot on X, formerly known as Twitter in 2022.
Facebook and Instagram blocked Sweeney's social media accounts that monitor Swift's private plane activity more recently, claiming that the accounts breach privacy regulations.
Which celebrities has Jack Sweeney tracked?
Sweeney has tracked Vladimir Putin and various Russian oligarchs. Other figures include Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, businessman and TV personality Mark Cuban and Drake.
Sweeney gave up watching Mark Cuban's travels in April 2022 in return for his friendship and business counsel.
After employing automated X accounts to monitor billionaire Elon Musk's private plane usage, Sweeney and Musk feuded.
Sweeney informed Musk that until Musk paid him $50,000 (£39,000), he would not stop sharing the location of the private plane. Later, after taking control of X in 2022, Musk blocked the account, citing a "safety risk" to his family and himself.
