Taylor Swift has threatened to take authorized motion towards the faculty pupil who tracks her non-public jet and manages social-media accounts that publish its flights.
The pop star’s lawyer despatched Jack Sweeney — a College of Central Florida pupil who first made headlines for monitoring Elon Musk’s non-public jets — a cease-and-desist letter in December, The Washington Put up reported on Tuesday.
The discover, which Sweeney confirmed to Enterprise Insider that he had acquired, referred to as for him to cease “stalking and harassing habits” and mentioned the jet monitoring had prompted Swift to dwell in a “fixed state of worry for her private security,” the Put up mentioned.
“Whereas this can be a recreation to you, or an avenue that you simply hope will earn you wealth or fame, it’s a life-or-death matter for our Consumer. Ms. Swift has handled stalkers and different people who want her hurt,” the letter mentioned, based on the Put up.
It additionally appeared to reference Sweeney’s previous dispute with Elon Musk concerning the jet-tracking accounts.
“We’re conscious of your public disputes with different high-profile people and your techniques in these interactions, together with providing to cease your dangerous habits solely in alternate for objects of worth,” the letter mentioned.
Sweeney advised BI that he appreciates Swift’s music and has no intention of harming these he tracks. He mentioned he curates the accounts for “transparency and public data.”
Sweeney has additionally tracked a variety of celebrities and billionaire jets, together with Mark Zuckerberg and Tom Cruise.
“I feel the individuals are ,” Sweeney advised BI over textual content. “It is best to have a good expectation that your jet will probably be tracked, whether or not or not I do it as, in any case, it’s public data.”
In response to the letter, the Put up reported that Sweeney reached out to the Digital Frontier Basis, a nonprofit that linked him with James Slater, an legal professional primarily based in Florida.
Slater advised the publication Swift’s letter was “unfounded.” In his response to Swift’s authorized crew, the legal professional mentioned Sweeney had “engaged in protected speech that doesn’t violate any of Ms. Swift’s authorized rights,” based on the Put up.
Tree Paine, a spokesperson for Swift, declined to remark to BI however advised the Put up: “His posts let you know precisely when and the place she could be.”
Sweeney makes use of one thing referred to as ADS-B to broadcast an plane’s whereabouts on-line, which is publicly out there data.
This has prompted folks like Swift to enroll in the Federal Aviation Administration’s free privateness packages as a option to cloak their non-public planes by blocking the information from being proven on web sites like FlightAware and Flightradar24.
Nonetheless, as a result of ADS-B information just isn’t sourced from the FAA, planes can nonetheless be tracked — and Sweeney makes use of this loophole.
Swift has confronted backlash for her non-public jet journey, even topping an inventory of celebrities whose non-public planes emitted probably the most carbon in 2022. Final yr, BI reported that the singer’s non-public jets spent over 166 hours in flight throughout the preliminary US leg of her Eras tour.
Sweeney advised BI he felt Swift’s crew had despatched the letter in response to “dangerous headlines for her about carbon emissions.” Swift’s spokesperson beforehand advised BI the singer had bought carbon credit to offset her jet use.
This isn’t the primary time Sweeney has confronted pushback from celebrities over his jet-tracking habits.
In early 2022, Elon Musk supplied the faculty pupil $5,000 to delete his @elonjet account on social media, saying he was involved the account would trigger him to be “shot by a nutcase.” Mark Cuban additionally expressed comparable considerations.
The rising reputation of jet-tracking on social media, nevertheless, prompted Musk to threaten authorized motion towards Sweeney in 2022 after he claimed the aircraft-tracking account had led to an incident together with his three-year-old son.
Musk took goal at Sweeney on Tuesday.
“Sweeney is an terrible human being,” the billionaire wrote on X. “Taylor Swift is correct to be involved.”
