Jack Sweeney, the college student whose Twitter account was suspended for tracking Elon Musk’s private jet, has moved his operation to Mark Zuckerberg’s new Twitter rival, Threads.
‘ElonJet has arrived at Threads!’ read Sweeney’s inaugural Threads post on Thursday.
‘@zuck will you let me stay?’ Sweeney asked in a post, making a veiled reference to the suspension of his ElonJet account on Twitter last year.
The Twitter account Sweeney used to track Musk’s private jet, as well as one he used to track Zuckerberg’s, were suspended in December last year.
As of Friday morning, it appeared that Sweeney’s account may have been removed from Threads as well.
College student Jack Sweeney has been tracking new Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s Gulfstream private jet since 2020 by obtaining public Automatic Dependent Surveillance Surveillance (ADS-B) broadcast data. Musk suspended his Twitter account in December.
Sweeney’s Instagram account, which is still active, has amassed more than 46,000 followers.
Meta did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the Sweeney’s Threads account.
Sweeney’s tracking of Musk’s plane began in 2020, his efforts garnering widespread attention. Before his suspension, @ElonJet had nearly half a million followers.
The college student eventually expanded his tracking operation to include the planes of other celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian and former President Donald Trump.
All accounts were suspended on December 14, 2022. Twitter claimed that they had violated Twitter’s terms and conditions.
Musk himself weighed in on the suspension, writing: “Any account that provides real-time location information of anyone will be suspended, as it is a breach of physical security.” This includes posting links to sites with real-time location information.’
“Legal action is being taken against Sweeney and the organizations that supported the harm to the family,” he added, after having acquired the company.
Musk attempted to purchase Sweeney’s account in 2021 for $5,000 when the teen refused to close it, but Sweeney declined the offer.
Musk is the owner of a $70 million Gulfstream G650ER private jet, and is seen here leaving the plane in Los Angeles.
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Before being shut down, the automated Twitter page called @ElonJet kept its followers updated on Musk’s whereabouts.
In 2021, Musk tried to buy Sweeney’s aircraft tracking account
Sweeney previously said he doesn’t regret turning down Musk’s $5,000 offer, noting that, at the time, he had made about $7,000 total off the mango thanks to merchandise sales, advertising and donations.
He said that the attention he has received from the public has been gratifying enough and that making money was not his main motivation.
“It’s just been great connecting with people on Twitter and other platforms [thanks to the popularity of @Elonjet]. People find me interesting,’ Sweeney said.
The teen also revealed that he regularly receives a flurry of abusive messages about the ethics of his account.
“There are some on Twitter who don’t like what I’m doing,” Sweeney told The Independent.
“I get rude DMs, but the really bad ones I report, and the accounts eventually get deleted.”
When Musk bought Twitter last year, the billionaire businessman shared his vision for the company in a statement: “Free speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital arena where issues vital to the future of Twitter are debated.” The humanity”.
At the time of his suspension, Sweeney labeled Musk a “complete hypocrite”, because Musk had assured him that he would allow his Twitter account to remain active following his $44 billion acquisition.
