Tech

The college student who tracks Elon Musk's private jet says the Tesla CEO only seems to care about tracking planes if it affects him

Jack Sweeney and Elon Musk
Jack Sweeney and Elon Musk. Jack Sweeney/Getty Images
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The college student who tracks Elon Musk's private jet on social media claimed the Tesla CEO had double standards about Twitter's tolerance for tweets revealing individuals' whereabouts in real time.

Jack Sweeney told Insider he found a Twitter account called @HoggNFL that tweeted the location of a jet that supposedly had passengers including the US ambassador to the United Kingdom, Woody Johnson; New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas; head coach Robert Saleh; and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. 

Sweeney warned the account owner that he'd report the tweet: "If I get banned for posting live, so will others."

Sweeney said others also reported the tweet. However, an emailed response from Twitter stated that "HoggNFL hasn't broken any safety policies," he said. 

"Either Twitter moderation is bad at its job or they only care about the live location rule when it's in Musk's interest," he added. "The account tweeted a famous person's live location of their jet but hasn't been taken down – the only difference is it's not Musk."

The tweet in question has subsequently been deleted.

The sophomore's Twitter accounts that tracked celebrities' jets including @ElonJet and @ZuccJet were suspended in December after Musk took control of Twitter. The billionaire said posting live locations was a "physical safety violation."

Early last year Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to stop sharing the flight information. Sweeney said he would for $50,000, but said Musk never followed up.

Following the suspension of the college student's accounts, Twitter updated its private information policy to restrict users from sharing individuals' live locations, which prompted him to tweet flight data with a 24-hour delay to adhere to the new policies.

Musk and Twitter didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider. 

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Sam Tabahriti reports on trending business news from the London bureau. He frequently covers tech, such as Apple, Twitter, Meta, and Google as well as transportation. Sam is particularly interested in investigating tech companies.  He received his BA in Journalism from the University of Westminster.  Before joining Insider, Sam worked for BBC, The Sunday Times Magazine, talkRADIO, Metro, and more.  Reach out You can get in touch with him by email at stabahriti@jkmperu.com or stabahriti@proton.me securely. He is also available via Twitter @samtabahriti or Instagram @samtbrt. WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram available upon request.  Top stories A SpaceX technician suffered a fractured skull during a routine rocket test in January and was placed in a coma A 62-year old engineer alleges he was sidelined at SpaceX over fears that he might 'retire or die' Rich Russians offered a Caribbean shortcut to US visas by paying their way to a Grenadian passport Dozens of seized superyachts may cause significant environmental damage if governments fail to pay millions in maintenance costs, experts say Russian oligarchs have been sanctioned like Osama bin Laden was, and they're using similar tactics to avoid them, an expert said Russian oligarchs anticipated sanctions months before the war and moved money through Hawala, an informal payment system, an expert says