Tech billionaire Elon Musk has reportedly offered a 19-year-old boy the sum of $5,000 for the teen to shut down a Twitter account that tracks Musk’s private jet. The teenager, Jack Sweeney, uses a “bot using public ADS-B data” to track Elon Musk’s private jet. The Twitter account is called Elon Musk’s Jet at @ElonJet.
In a series of tweet exchanges, Elon Musk called the idea of tracking his private movements a security risk and said he didn’t want to be shot down by a nutjob. The billionaire allegedly offered Sweeney $5,000 but the boy asked for either a Tesla Model 3 or $50,000 to foot his education bills and maybe get a car.
“Can you take this down,” Musk had tweeted? “It is a security risk.”
“Yes, I can,” Sweeney responded. “But it’ll cost you a Model 3. Only joking, unless…?”
“I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” the billionaire pressed.
“Any chance to up that to $50k,” the boy negotiated. “It would be a great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car, maybe even a Model 3.”
That was where the communication ended between Musk and Sweeney in 2021 since the billionaire had not addressed the concern again. But the young boy continues to demonstrate that he can track the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s flights with ease.
On January 26, he posted “Elon got PIA but I’ve already identified it!” and that same day, he tweeted “Took off from Hawthorne, Elon got PIA blocking program but already found the aircraft.” Earlier on January 23, Sweeney tweeted that Musk “landed near Lanai City, Hawaii, US. Approximate flight time, 7 hours and 4 minutes.”
Sweeney created the Twitter account in June 2020 and stated it is to cover “anything space, Tesla, or aviation.” Musk has more than 71 million Twitter followers and any opinions he posts become instant news sensations, with many of them influencing business decisions in major US organizations.