International singer, Taylor Swift, seeks to stop college student who creates accounts to track celebrities’ private flights. Swift’s lawyers have taken action after sending a cease and desist letter to the student, who has also tracked flights of Elon Musk.
Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Florida, received a letter in December 2023 from Swift’s lawyers, which was later shared to The Washington Post. The letter accuses Sweeney of causing “direct and irreparable harm” and mentions that the matter is a “matter of life and death” for the singer, The Washington Post reports.
I think it’s important to keep in mind that I mean no harm anywhere. In fact, I think Swift has some good songs,” Sweeney told The Verge. “I believe in transparency and public information,” he added.
Notably, in 2022, entrepreneur and owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, confronted Sweeney after questioning and asking him to delete the account that tracked his plane. After refusing this request, X’s platform restricted and muted the account with the name ElonJet. However, in December of the same year, Sweeney opened @ElonJetNextDay, which posts Musk’s flights with a 24-hour delay.
Likewise, in 2022, a Yard report pointed to Swift as a leading cause of CO2 pollution, as in that year alone, his jet made 170 flights, the equivalent of 15.9 days in the air. The same list included celebrities such as Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Steven Spielberg, Mark Wahlberg and Oprah Winfrey.
Taylor Swift, also named Person of the Year in 2023 by Time magazine, is being criticized by users, who question her for having a high carbon footprint. The artist has been singled out for her excessive use of her jet.
For his part, Sweeney confessed to The Washington Post that Swift had sent this letter at a time when the singer was receiving strong criticism for the use of her jet. In addition to @SwiftJetNextDay, other celebrity accounts, such as those of Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump, continue to be active and logging flights.