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Elon Musk, Taylor Swift and a private jet

On Tuesday, the billionaire spoke out about Taylor Swift threatening legal action against a college student named Jack Sweeney for posting the location of celebrity private planes online.

“Sweeney is an awful human being,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post made by journalist Ian Miles Cheong about the news. “Taylor Swift is right to be concerned.”

Sweeney told Business Insider over text 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 response to Musk on X.

“Let’s remember you offered me 5k to stop,” Sweeney wrote. “Also threatened to sue me, and here we are a year later.”

Musk’s comment came after news broke of Swift’s attorney sending Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter in December, calling for him to stop “stalking and harassing behavior.”

“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,” the letter said. “Ms. Swift has dealt with stalkers and other individuals who wish her harm.”

Sweeney told BI he’s never meant any harm to the people whose jets he tracks, but created the accounts because he believes in “transparency and public information.”

Sweeney, a University of Central Florida college student, first made headlines for his myriad social media accounts when, in 2021, Musk offered him $5,000 to take down his @elonjet profile, which posted updates of the billionaire’s private flights.

Sweeney also had accounts on social media following the private plane locations of other ultrawealthy people like Swift, Donald Trump, and Mark Zuckerburg.

Some celebrities — Musk and Swift included — have tried to cloak their private jet travels by using privacy programs run by the Federation Aviation Administration, but this only works with websites that use FAA data, like FlightAware and Flightradar24.

Websites like ADS-B Exchange, however, rely on public data sources, giving jet trackers like Sweeney a loophole.

“You should have a decent expectation that your jet will be tracked whether or not I do it. After all, it is public information,” Sweeney told BI in response to Swift’s legal threat.