When Protocol published a piece on Twitter bots earlier this week, 19-year-old Jack Sweeney gained internet popularity. @ElonJet, a tracker that tweets when Elon Musk’s private jet takes off and lands, is run by a college student. Sweeney has numerous more bots that track the private jets of celebrities like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos using publicly available air traffic data. However, the ElonJet account is Sweeney’s most famous one, with over 180,000 followers and counting. And it was because of this popularity none other than Elon Musk was drawn to the bot.
Landed near Brownsville, Texas, US. Apx. flt. time 45 Mins. pic.twitter.com/1j6y40p0XJ
— Elon Musk's Jet (@ElonJet) February 2, 2022
Elon’s Offer to Take It Down
Sweeney was contacted by the entrepreneur regarding ElonJet last fall. “Can you take this down? According to Protocol, he stated that it is a security concern. Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to erase the account and prevent “crazy people” from discovering his location. Sweeney responded with a counteroffer. “Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be a big help in college and would even allow me to buy a car, probably a Model 3.”
Musk said he’d think about it, but the two haven’t communicated since. Sweeney told Protocol at the time that Musk’s ghosting didn’t disturb him. ElonJet had taught him how to code, and he had secured part-time employment with UberJets due to his work there. He also talked with one of his heroes as a self-proclaimed admirer of all things Musk.
Still, he is a 19-year-old in college, and $50,000 would have been a huge help with tuition. But the teenager now appears to have changed his mind. In a recent interview with Business Insider, he claimed he decided to make Musk’s offer public when the billionaire seemed to lose interest in working out a deal. “He went the opposite way of me, so why wouldn’t I go the opposite way of him?” he questioned. “I’ve done a lot of work on this, and $5,000 is not enough,” Sweeney added.
As Negotiations Break Down
Although Sweeney doesn’t seem to care about the $5,000 anymore, he has no intention of complying with any request from Musk, and Musk does not also appear to be interested in negotiating with Sweeney. Following their initial encounter, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO used Sweeney’s technical recommendations to make his jet more difficult to track. Musk is also said to have told Sweeney at the time that it didn’t “feel right” to pay to shut down the company. He most likely has a valid argument.
Musk said he’d think about it, but the two haven’t communicated since. Sweeney told Protocol at the time that Musk’s ghosting didn’t disturb him. ElonJet had taught him how to code, and he had secured part-time employment with UberJets due to his work there. He also talked with one of his heroes as a self-proclaimed admirer of all things Musk.
Still, he is a 19-year-old in college, and $50,000 would have been a massive help with tuition. But, the teenager now appears to have changed his mind. In a recent interview with Business Insider, he claimed he decided to make Musk’s offer public when the billionaire seemed to lose interest in working out a deal. “He went the opposite way of me, so why wouldn’t I go the opposite way of him?” he questioned the deal. “I’ve done a lot of work on this, and $5,000 is not enough,” Sweeney added.
Although Sweeney doesn’t seem to care about the $5,000 anymore, he has no intention of complying with any request from Musk, and Musk does not also appear to be interested in negotiating with Sweeney. Following their initial encounter, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO used Sweeney’s technical recommendations to make his jet more difficult to track. Musk is also said to have told Sweeney at the time that it didn’t “feel right” to pay to shut down the company. He most likely has a valid argument.
How the teenager conceived the project
In June 2020, Sweeney launched Elon Musk’s Jet Twitter account. The account uses bots to harvest publicly available air traffic data, informing fans of Musk’s private jet’s movements. He said he worked on the account’s technology for a few months before launching it as a lockdown project. Sweeney says he came up with the concept because he admires Musk. “I knew he had the jet, and I just knew it would reveal what business is going on and where he is going and stuff,” he told reporters.
Sweeney’s father works in aviation, which piqued his interest in planes. “I had the apps where you can track planes and stuff,” Sweeney stated, “adding, “I kind of thought they were cool.”
Sweeney said he worked part-time for a firm called UberJets while in college, where he developed a platform to track chartered flights so the company could locate customers’ cheaper tickets. He also mentioned that his work on Elon Musk’s Jet Twitter account is on his GitHub, allowing him to show it out to potential employers.
Given the circumstances, there is no doubt that Elon Musk’s jet must be made hard to track. But Sweeney had already achieved this. Although some people are concerned about the safety of celebrities who have their flights publicly announced, it is not likely that any would-be attackers would go through all this trouble to track down their targets.
The blocking program
Sweeney also provided some technical advice to Musk, informing him about a blocking program he might use to combat flight tracking programs.
“It looks like he took that advice,” Sweeney said, adding that Musk appeared to be using the blocking program right currently.
So, despite the blocking software, is Sweeney still able to follow Musk’s flights? Sweeney said, “I am.” “It’s just a bit more complicated.”
It’s also worth mentioning that Sweeney is yet another teenage genius. Elon Musk is known for his innovations and out-of-the-box ideas. What if he considers working together with the teenager on his next project? Is it something that would be out of character for Musk?
