Teen who was banned from Twitter for tracking Elon Musk’s private jet in real time returns

The college student behind the infamous @ElonJet Twitter account, the profile that followed Elon Musk’s private jet in real time, is back, albeit with a notable difference.

The account, now called @ElonJetNextDay, will post the location of the SpaceX founder’s plane with a 24-hour delay, account creator Jack Sweeney said in an interview with Well-informed person.

In a separate interview with the New York Post, Sweeney said the new account remains “unsearchable” and can only be found if a user adjusts their search settings.

The old version of the account was automated, Sweeney told Insider that the new version will be updated manually until he can find a way to automate it with the new restriction.

At the time the account was removed, @ElonJet had 500,000 followers. Musk had previously promised not to ban the account.

Musk changed Twitter’s rules to generate real-time location reports against the site’s rules. Users can share “publicly available location information after a reasonable amount of time has elapsed, such that the individual is no longer at risk of physical harm.”

Despite the new account, Sweeney says that Musk still bans his personal account. Whether @ElonJetNextDay will avoid a ban remains to be seen.

The University of Florida sophomore said he originally created the account in 2020 because he was a fan of Musk. Previously, the South African had offered him $5,000 to remove the page. Sweeney responded, asking for $50,000.

Musk also threatened legal action. In his interview with the Post, Sweeney said he felt as if the Tesla founder was “bluffing.”

According to the new page, the most recent flight made by Musk’s plane saw it fly between Oakland and Austin, Texas, where Tesla is based.

The original ElonJet account remains active on Mastadon, where it has 67,000 followers, Instagram, Facebook and TruthSocial.

Sweeney, who studies information technology, had created more than 15 Twitter bots that tracked the private planes of tech billionaires, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, but the account that tracked Musk’s plane was by far the most popular.

Jack Sweeney, a sophomore at the University of Florida, said he originally created the account in 2020 because he was a fan of Musk. Previously, the South African had offered him $5,000 to remove the page. Sweeney responded, asking for $50,000.

According to the new page, the most recent flight made by Musk’s plane saw it fly between Oakland and Austin, Texas, where Tesla is based.

ElonJet’s original account remains active on Mastadon, where it has 67,000 followers, Instagram, Facebook and TruthSocial

The reappearance of the account comes as Musk is coming under fire for his latest Twitter feature, which offers a public tally of how many views a tweet has received.

Former Twitter engineer Paul Stamatiou, tweeted about the feature saying: “IIRC we tested it and most people didn’t get any views and had to have some thresholds before showing it as ‘0 views’ was depressing.”

He added: “We also wanted to be precise and not count if someone quickly scrolls through your tweet in their TL.”

Although the information Sweeney relies on is public, his program requires sophisticated knowledge to match transponder frequencies to separately available anonymous flight plans.

Although the information Sweeney relies on is public, his program requires sophisticated knowledge to match transponder frequencies to separately available anonymous flight plans.

It’s unclear what legal action Musk could take against Sweeney over an account that automatically posted public flight information.

Musk had said in a tweet in November that his commitment to free speech “extends even to not banning the account that follows my plane, even though that is a direct risk to personal safety.” Musk previously called himself a “free speech absolutist.”

Earlier this month, Musk blamed the ElonJet account for facilitating a stalker who followed a car in Los Angeles carrying his son, X Æ A-12.

It’s unclear what legal action Musk could take against Sweeney over an account that automatically posted public flight information.

On December 15, Musk tweeted: “Any account that provides real-time location information of anyone will be suspended, as it is a breach of physical security.” Posting locations that someone traveled to with a slight delay isn’t a security issue, so that’s okay.’

This week, the stalker who was following Musk’s son was identified as an Uber Eats worker who insists the billionaire is stalking him with 24-hour surveillance, a new report has revealed.

Brandon Collado is said to be the man behind the harassment, according to the Washington Post, after he was identified when Musk posted his ski mask-covered face to his 122 million followers on Tuesday.

In the short video, the suspect confirmed to be Collado can be seen wearing a black hood driving a white Hyundai, confronting a member of Elon Musk’s security detail after jumping on the hood of a car he was in. Musk’s son, X, was traveling.

Collado, in turn, has made some unhinged comments, including that X’s mom Grimes was sending him ‘encoded’ Instagram messages and that the billionaire CEO was, in fact, harassing him.

Musk, who was not present at the encounter, posted the footage on Twitter to ask if anyone recognized the man, before blaming the incident on a banned account that tracked his plane to a Los Angeles airport 23 hours before the unwanted interaction. .

The incident occurred 26 miles from the airport, at a gas station in Pasadena.

In an interview with the Post, Collado confirmed that he has an interest in Musk’s family and that he was the masked man in the images, while also claiming that the mother of Musk’s children, pop star Grimes, was sending him coded messages. through the latter. Instagram posts.

Brandon Collado is said to be the man behind the harassment, according to the Washington Post, after he was identified when Musk posted his ski mask-covered face to his 122 million followers on Tuesday.

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher, lives in a house near the gas station where the altercation occurred.

Still, police in both Los Angeles and South Pasadena, the location of the incident, said there was “no evidence” that Collado’s apparent tracking of the car linked to Musk was linked to the @elonjet plane tracking account, operated for 20 years. former college student Jack Sweeney, who runs several similar accounts.

Speaking to Post reporters Drew Harwell and Taylor Lorenz, who were temporarily banned from Twitter this week after seeking comment for Musk on the incident, Collado claimed to be an Uber Eats driver and acknowledged that he is interested in both in Musk, 51, and Boucher.

Boucher, 34, split from the billionaire just a year after two-year-old X was born in 2021, but the couple have reportedly remained on good terms and are parents to their two children.