Meta pulls the plug on accounts tracking celebrity private jets

Daily News Article   —   Posted on October 30, 2024

(by Ariel Zilber, NY Post) – Meta has suspended several accounts which monitored the private jet flights of top celebrities and tech moguls including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk among others.

Jack Sweeney, the Florida-based college student who was kicked off X by Musk for managing an account that tracked the billionaire’s private jet flights, announced that Zuckerberg has also pulled the plug on similar flight-tracking accounts on Instagram and Threads.

“Jet Tracking on Instagram and Threads got Zucked,” Sweeney wrote in a message that he posted to his social media account.

“Today brings a sense of déjà vu, reminiscent of all my accounts getting suspended on Twitter,” Sweeney wrote.

According to Sweeney, the accounts were “blacked out” without warning from Meta.

“As the day progressed, all of my other tracking accounts celebrityjets, kimkjet, kyliejennerjet, bezosjets, zuckerbergjet — were suspended,” he wrote.

Sweeney claimed that similar flight-tracking accounts devoted to former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were allowed to remain up, though those, too, were eventually deactivated after another publication wrote an article highlighting how those were the sole accounts that were active.

“The behavior is consistent: these platforms operate without transparency, and it feels like they make arbitrary decisions,” Sweeney wrote.

According to Sweeney, his jet-tracking site devoted to Taylor Swift was removed from Instagram 10 months ago. But the service allowed his other monitoring accounts to remain up.

Sweeney accused Meta of “showing a clear case of selective enforcement.”

The Post has sought comment from Meta.

“Given the risk of physical harm to individuals, and in keeping with the independent Oversight Board’s recommendation, we’ve disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy,” a Meta spokesperson said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.

Last December, attorneys for Swift, the pop superstar singer, threatened Sweeney with legal action. They sent him a cease-and-desist letter stating that Swift would “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if he did not stop his “stalking and harassing behavior.”

In February, Swift sold one of her private jets after news of her lawyers’ letter to Sweeney surfaced.

In May, President Biden signed into law a measure that allows the owners of private jets to anonymize their registration information — making it harder to track their flights.

Despite the new regulations, Sweeney told Thrillist in May that it was still possible for private jet enthusiasts to monitor celebrity flights since so few people fly those routes and he is often fed the information by fans.

Published at NYPost .com on October 22, 2024. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

Background

From a Feb. 21, 2024 report at CBS News:

Sweeney's website, GRNDCTRL, uses public information from the Federal Aviation Administration to share the flight information as well as fuel use and emissions of celebrity jets, including those of Kylie Jenner and Bill Gates.

Sweeney said he posts the information 24 hours after each flight.

In December 2023, Taylor Swift's lawyers sent Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter saying his tracking of her jet tipped off stalkers as to her location, accusing him of effectively providing "individuals intent on harming her, or with nefarious or violent intentions, a roadmap to carry out their plans."

Musk had taken similar legal action against Sweeney, saying the travel information shared on social media put his family at risk. Sweeney's original account, @ElonJet, was suspended by Twitter in 2022, according to BBC News. His account that tracked several private jets, @CelebrityJets, is also defunct.

But Sweeney's lawyer says the letter from Swift's lawyers fails to make any legal claim. He claims in the letter that her lawyers failed to make a viable stalking claim and the public information posted by Sweeney poses no threat to Swift.