Taylor Swift threatens legal action against Florida student who tracks her jet

Attorneys for Taylor Swift are threatening legal action against the Florida college student who tracks the private jets of celebrities and public figures, including Swift.

Jack Sweeney confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that he received a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action from attorneys for Swift about the social media accounts he runs that track Swift’s flights. The news was first reported by the Washington Post.

Sweeney is the same person who famously drew ire from billionaire Elon Musk for tracking his jet travels online. Musk, who owns X, disbanded Sweeney’s account “@ElonJet” on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter in December 2022.

Sweeney, who was let back on the X platform, also runs accounts that track the private jet movements of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and a spate of other celebrities and public figures. Musk has previously said the accounts pose a “security risk” for him and his family.

Sweeney operates the accounts on several social media platforms using publicly-available flight data from the Federal Aviation Administration as well as flight signals tracked by individual aviation enthusiasts, and often includes estimates of carbon emissions from each flight he tracks in the posts.

The December letter from Swift’s lead attorney on this issue, Katie Morrone of Venable LLP, accuses Sweeney of engaging in “stalking and harassing behavior, including consistently publishing real-time and precise information about our client’s location and future whereabouts to the public on social media.”

The letter claims this poses an “imminent threat to the safety and wellbeing” of Swift. It also accuses Sweeney of disregarding the public safety of others “in exchange for public attention and/or requests for financial gain.”