Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: STEPHANE MOUCHMOUCHE / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 7:15 p.m., February 7, 2024

Aged 21, Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, publishes on X, Threads and even Instagram the private jet trips of several stars, including Taylor Swift who is now threatening to sue him. An approach to which Elon Musk gave his support.

It is not uncommon for Elon Musk or even Taylor Swift to board a private jet for a trip. Travels that Jack Sweeney, a 21-year-old American student, follows and compiles on his social networks, to the great dismay of those involved. Through her lawyers, the singer, recently crowned at the Grammy Awards, even threatened the young man with legal action, reports the

Washington Post

, which published extracts from the letter sent to her parents' home. 

To achieve his goals, Jack Sweeney uses public data, provided by government agencies, but also that of ADS-B Exchange, which offers the possibility of monitoring global air traffic in real time, as also offered by the FlightRadar24 site. . A multitude of information that allows it to identify the owners of the devices, whose identity is traditionally hidden in official documents. 

“Direct and irreparable harm”

The young man thus relays all of the jet trips made by Elon Musk and Taylor Swift, but also Roman Abramovitch, the owner of the Chelsea football club, Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, as well as several Russian oligarchs on accounts like CelebJets. The quantity of CO2 emitted for each trip also appears.

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If most of the personalities tracked did not react, this is not the case for Taylor Swift. Katie Wriht Morrone, the singer's lawyer, mentions in particular "direct and irreparable harm" as well as "emotional and physical distress", for which Jack Sweeney is held responsible. And threatens the student with legal action to put an end to “this harassment and stalking behavior”.

"It is not a question of putting a GPS tracker on a person and invading their private life. It is using public information on the movements of a private jet of a public figure", defended, to the

Washington Post

, James Slater, the student's lawyer. 

Already banned for the first time from X 

Elon Musk, the boss of Jack Sweeney then created @ElonJetNextDay which once again made it possible to follow the Tesla boss's travels, but with a 24-hour delay.

Flew from Long Beach, California, US to Los Angeles, California, US 24 hours ago.


Apx. flt. time 22 Mins. pic.twitter.com/APs3Z6P771

— ElonJet but Delayed (@ElonJetNextDay) February 5, 2024

The latter also gave his support to Taylor Swift, saying that Jack Sweeney is “a horrible human being” and that the artist “is right to be worried”. The singer had been the subject of numerous criticisms over the unbridled use of her private jet, but had responded by assuring that she sometimes rented the device to third parties.