Elon Musk offered teen $5K to shut down Twitter account tracking his private flights

[Eric]

No fan of Musk but this is pretty much extortion and an egregious invasion of privacy.

Elon Musk offered teen $5K to shut down Twitter account tracking his private flights: report

Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered $5,000 to a 19-year-old to shut down a Twitter account that tracks his private flights, the teenager told Protocol. Jack Sweeney runs 15 flight-tracking accounts us…

thehill.com

Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered $5,000 to a 19-year-old to shut down a Twitter account that tracks his private flights, the teenager told Protocol.

Jack Sweeney runs 15 flight-tracking accounts using a bot he created that automatically posts when a celebrity’s flight leaves or lands at an airport.

Sweeney’s account tracking Musk’s flights has the most followers, with more than 97,000, and its popularity led Musk to send a direct message to Sweeney.

“I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” Musk said in the message, offering $5,000 for Sweeney to take it down, according to Protocol.
“Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3,” Sweeney responded back.

The last exchange between Musk and Sweeney occurred a week ago, when Sweeney said he would delete the account for no money if Musk gave him an internship. The teenager said Musk has not opened the message yet.

Sweeny explained to Musk how he was able to find publicly available data regarding his private jet to create an algorithm that automatically posts the status of Musk's plane on Twitter. Although the status of Musk's flights is public information, only those will high knowledge of the industry would understand where to find it, according to Protocol.

 

[Joe]

He could probably get more lol

 

[tobefirst]

He could probably get more lol

Definitely. Musk has no leverage here. He's a zillionaire. The kid should ask for his college to be paid for, though if you're writing bots to track celebrity flights, I'm not sure you need college.

 

[Eric]

IMO just because he's a gazzilionaire doesn't mean he deserves to have his privacy invaded like this. It's like the paparazzi developed an algorithm and are using it to extort celebrities. If I were Elon I would see what sort of legal avenues there are here and litigate this guy into the poorhouse.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

I share your view 100%.

Nevertheless, public figures can not and will not ever have a private life.

Fame = no privacy.

That is the price - among others - you have to pay.

 

[Renzatic]

He could probably get more lol

That's the first thing I thought of when I read the headline. He should hold out for at least $20k.

 

[ronntaylor]

I cringed when I saw this right after reading about Tim Cook having to apply for a 2nd restraining order after another nutter claims he's their sexual partner and had threats made against him after they attempted to enter his property. The first case was a gay guy who apparently was attacked by someone that had a tenuous relationship with an Apple employee (can't remember the exact details from 2019-2020). Now it's a woman claiming Cook is the father of her twins. I wonder if Cook's flights have been tracked via this creep.