Elon Musk offered Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old from Florida, $5,000 to remove his Twitter account that tracks the billionaire’s private jet, but he declined.
ElonJet has over 150,000 followers and employs a bot designed by Sweeney to track Musk’s flights. The feed then tweets the time and location of the plane’s takeoff and landing, as well as the length of each flight.
The college student has created a dozen more flying bot profiles that follow the movements of high-profile tech titans such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, among others.
https://twitter.com/ElonJet/status/1486438551294074882
Musk’s first direct message was received on November 30, according to Protocol.
Musk begged Sweeney, “Can you take this down?” “It’s a safety hazard.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO eventually gave the boy $5,000 in exchange for his cooperation in preventing “mad individuals” from tracking his flights. Sweeney reacted with a $50,000 demand, claiming that the money would be used for college and possibly a Tesla (TSLA) Model 3.
Musk stated, “I don’t like the thought of being shot by a nutcase.”
Musk claimed it didn’t feel right “to pay to shut this down” in a message exchange on Wednesday, Jan. 19.
Sweeney responded, “Other than remuneration like as an internship, would make taking it down a lot simpler.” Musk hasn’t answered yet. Since the first Falcon Heavy launch in 2018, Sweeney has been a fan of SpaceX, he said. His father is an airline pilot, which piques his interest in the industry.
Sweeney remarked, “5,000 isn’t enough for how much I get out of it.” “It doesn’t take the place of anything, such as the fun factor.”
Sweeney did provide some technical assistance to Musk, advising him about a blocking tool he might use to combat aircraft tracking programmes.
“It appears he heeded that suggestion,” Sweeney said, adding that Musk appeared to be using the blocking programme right now.
So, despite the blocking software, is Sweeney still able to follow Musk’s flights? Sweeney said, “I am.” “It’s simply a little more difficult.”
