Elon Musk offered a teenager $ 5,000 to delete a Twitter account that tracks his jet. That was not enough
ElonJet has over 150,000 followers, and uses a bot developed by Sweeney to monitor Musk’s flights. The feed then tweets out when and where the plane takes off or lands and the duration of each trip.
The first-year college student has developed around a dozen other flybot accounts that track the travels of high-profile tech titans, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
“Can you take this down?” Musk Sweeney asked. “It’s a security risk.”
“I do not love the idea of being shot by a narcissist,” Musk said.
The last exchange of messages was on Wednesday 19 January, when Musk said that it did not feel right “to pay to shut this down”. CNN Business has seen the messages.
“Options other than compensation as an internship would make it much easier to take it down,” Sweeney replied. Musk has not yet responded.
CNN has contacted SpaceX for comment.
Sweeney said he has been a fan of SpaceX since the first Falcon Heavy launch in 2018. His father works for an airline, which arouses interest in aviation.
“5000 is not enough for how much I get out of it,” Sweeney said. “It replaces nothing, like the pleasure factor.”
Sweeney gave Musk some technical advice, and told the billionaire about a blockchain program he could use to thwart aircraft tracking programs.
“It looks like he took that advice,” Sweeney said, adding that it appears Musk is currently using the blocking program.
So is Sweeney still able to track Musk’s flights despite the blocking program? “I am,” Sweeney said. “It’s just a little more complicated.”
