He's admitted he's still a 'fan of Musk's ventures' despite being banned
Jack Sweeney, the college student who set up "Elonjet," a Twitter account dedicated to tracking Elon Musk's private jet, has responded after the plane-tracking account was removed from the platform
In a
Newsweek op-ed published on Thursday, Sweeney wrote that he wants to keep tracking the plane on different social media platforms.
"If I give up now, it's kind of like letting the big guy win," he said.
Sweeney added in his op-ed that he does not care that "Elonjet" was suspended from Musk's Twitter, saying that he already has a presence on other platforms such as Mastodon, Instagram, and Telegram.
"I don't have to follow Musk's rules on other platforms, and I don't have to worry about him watching my account," Sweeney wrote.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkM3e4KINcN/?hl=en
Twitter on Wednesday
updated its
"Private Information policy," which now prohibits "sharing someone else's live location in most cases." Before that announcement though,
over 30 of Sweeney's accounts were banned on Wednesday under Musk's updated privacy policy.
This suspension included accounts that tracked other private planes, like those owned by Jeff Bezos and former President Donald Trump.
"Twitter was my core platform, as I had 500,000 followers, but my accounts are gaining speed on other platforms," he added.
Sweeney said in his op-ed that he is "still a fan of Musk's ventures," despite being banned from Twitter.
On Wednesday, Musk went as far as to threaten legal action against Sweeney, after claiming that the publication of real-time location information led to a "crazy stalker" approaching a car that was carrying his son, X, in Los Angeles.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603190155107794944?s=20&t=7MoUltTrF0eoJmfm4PGwgw
This comes after Musk had tweeted last month that his "commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk."
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589414958508691456?s=20&t=IjjqSWQAzU19EEW1MV5oGA
But Sweeney has refuted claims that his Elonjet account could have caused this, writing in the op-ed: "I don't think my Elonjet account could have led a 'crazy stalker' to his car."
"I'm tracking his plane, not the car, so I don't see how it could be connected," he added.
Regarding the threat of legal action from Musk, Sweeney says he feels "slightly" intimidated, but said there "doesn't seem to be any legal ground for a lawsuit."
"I'm just posting information that's already out there," Sweeney wrote.
Earlier this year, Sweeney had his Musk-tracking account suspended
banned from Facebook.
And this isn't the first time Musk and Sweeney have clashed online.
In January, Musk
offered Sweeney $5,000 to close the account after discovering the Twitter page, However, Sweeney refused, saying
he'd only do it for $50,000.
Musk then rejected this counter-offer and blocked him.
The teen then set up more plane tracking accounts for other billionaires,
such as Bill Gates and Floyd Mayweather, before moving onto the
jets of Russian oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich.
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