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With Twitter takeover, what will be the fate of the boy who tracked Elon Musk, Russian Oligarchs` plane?
As Elon Musk nears taking control of Twitter, it remains to be seen what the future of Jack Sweeney`s account @ElonJet will be that he uses to track and post data of the billionaire`s private jet.
Highlights
- Elon Musk wanted @ElonJet to be shut down
- Jack Sweeney demanded $50,000 to close the account
- Sweeney claimed to have 16 more such Twitter accounts
Before Elon Musk decided to be the owner of Twitter, an incident took place on the social media platform that got him on the news in relation to a 19-year-old boy. The reports were that a 19-year-old teenager named Jack Sweeney was tracking Musk's private jet and was posting the data online. He even went as far as asking $50,000 from Elon Musk to delete the Twitter account tracking his jet.
Following the incident, now Elon Musk has finalised the deal to be the official owner of Twitter. However, it remains to be seen what will be the future of Jack Sweeney's account that Musk wanted to be deleted. At the time, the teenager had reportedly said he is creating dozens more accounts tracking the movements of other rich and famous people.
Jack Sweeney also claimed to have developed 16 automated Twitter accounts, or bots, to monitor jets owned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (@GatesJet), Amazon's Jeff Bezos, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, and rapper Drake, very similar to @ElonJet. The accounts not only measure but also report on these billionaires' carbon footprints, which is one of the reasons Elon Musk wanted to buy out the account.
At the time, Sweeney, who founded @ElonJet in June 2020, expressed hope that Musk will renew discussions to buy the account and close it down. Tesla's co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, had turned down the teenager's $50,000 demand.
According to the rumours, Musk had blocked Sweeney on Twitter. Moreover, Musk promised Sweeney $5,000 to get rid of the bot, but Sweeney demanded $50,000. Musk, on the other hand, had refused to pay and blocked Sweeney's Twitter. Last November, the billionaire contacted the 19-year-old to voice his concern about the bot.
However, now the ball is in Musk's court as he will have control over who can and cannot use Twitter. It remains to be seen how the billionaire proceeds on the issue surrounding @ElonJet.