Elon Musk’s teen tormentor now exposing private jet movements of other billionaires after refusing his offer of $5k to quit
Musk reached out to teen in November asking him to stop the tracking of his private jet
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The teenager who refused Elon Musk’s offer of $5k to stop tracking his private jet has now decided to go after other billionaires.
Jack Sweeney, who runs the Twitter bot page Elon Musk’s Jet (@ElonJet) that monitors the Tesla owner’s private jet’s movements, made Musk a counteroffer of $50,000 to stop the tracking but the SpaceX owner didn’t respond to that. He instead blocked him on social media.
Now Mr Sweeney is set to go after other billionaires such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and other high-profile businesspeople.
Mr Musk had asked the 19-year-old freshman at the University of Florida to stop tracking the jets as it was a “security concern” and that he did not “love the idea of being shot by a nutcase.”
Mr Sweeney was quoted as saying by Bloomberg: “I knew he had a plane, you know, as a fan of SpaceX and Tesla stuff. I thought the Elon Musk’s Jet bot would reveal like where he’s going and what business he’s doing.”
The teen still harbours hopes that Musk will come back with another offer. But meanwhile, he is launching a business called Ground Control that will monitor the flight activity of high-profile businessmen.
Mr Sweeney launched the Twitter bot @ElonJet in June 2020.
In an interview with Bloomberg, he said: “Companies in flight tracking have millions in revenue per year. Just a small cut of what they make would be good revenue for me.”
Musk reached out to the teen in November last year and offered $5k for him to stop the tracking of his private jet. Mr Sweeney said: “The amount of time and dedication I have put into it is cool — like, 5K isn’t enough to drop it.”
He added: “You know, it’s kinda strange, he wants it down and seems like he’s really mad.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments