The 19-year-old tracking Elon Musk's jet on Twitter says the billionaire has blocked him

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The 19-year-old tracking Elon Musk's jet on Twitter says the billionaire has blocked him
Tesla CEO Elon Musk.PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images
  • Elon Musk blocked the teen who has been tracking his private jet on Twitter, Bloomberg reports.
  • 19 year-old Jack Sweeney created the Elon Musk's Jet Twitter account in June 2020.
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The 19 year-old who created a Twitter account to track Elon Musk's jet told Bloomberg the Tesla billionaire has blocked him.

Jack Sweeney created the Elon Musk's Jet Twitter account in June 2020. The account uses bots to collect publicly available air traffic data detailing the movements of Musk's private jet.

Protocol first reported that Musk had approached Sweeney late last year and offered $5,000 to get the account taken down, saying it posed a "security risk."

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Sweeney, who shared the Twitter private messages exchanged between himself and Musk with Insider, countered with an offer of $50,000. Musk declined, saying it didn't "feel right" to pay for the account's removal.

In a new interview with Bloomberg, Sweeney said Musk blocked all social media accounts connected to Sweeney on Sunday night. Sweeney confirmed in a message to Insider that Musk has blocked him.

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"You know, it's kinda strange, he wants it down and seems like he's really mad," Sweeney told Bloomberg.

Sweeney told Insider last week Musk had introduced some measures he himself had recommended during their Twitter conversation, which make it harder to track the jet.

Harder, Sweeney said, but not impossible. "I just have to work around it," Sweeney told Insider.

Sweeney said in his interview with Insider, conducted last week, that he was aware going public with Musk's offer might antagonize the billionaire.

"He'll probably be annoyed," Sweeney told Insider, adding: "he went the opposite way of me so why wouldn't I go the opposite way of him?"

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Musk and Sweeney did not immediately reply to requests for comment from Insider sent outside of regular US working hours.

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