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Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, says everyone will have a place on the platform, even those he dislikes. Nonetheless, one user suspects his time on the social media platform is coming to an end: the teen tracking his private jet.
Shortly after Musk struck a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion in one of the largest leveraged buyout deals in history, Jack Sweeney told his followers where they can really find the viral “Elon Musk’s Jet” account on other social media platforms.
I’m not sure where it could go. Elon has said a lot about free speech, but he also has a lot of power. So he could suspend my account,” Sweeney explained in an interview.
Sweeney, 19, rose to online fame after refusing to accept $5,000 from Tesla CEO Elon Musk in exchange for shutting down his Twitter bot account that tracked Musk’s private plane’s movements. Musk first contacted the Florida college student in November 2021, requesting that the account be closed due to privacy concerns.
Musk, whose net worth is $257 billion according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, did not respond to the Florida teen’s counter offer of $50,000 or an internship chance, and the account has remained active ever since.
Fans of the handle are concerned that Musk’s acquisition of Twitter will mean the end of the account, which has become an internet sensation. Despite the fact that he hasn’t heard anything from Twitter or Musk, Sweeney claims that the SpaceX CEO has unblocked the website.
After declining an invitation to join Twitter’s board of directors, Musk offered to take over the company, which has become a hub for public discourse, with the goal of making it a bastion of free speech online. Sweeney, on the other hand, believes the billionaire could argue that the account poses “more of a security risk than a freedom of speech risk.”
Elon claimed he wanted the account deactivated for safety reasons, but I’m not sure I believe him. “I think he just doesn’t want people to know where he is,” Sweeney explained. Atypical corporate travel can reveal information about a company’s business activity, mergers and acquisitions, and more, resulting in private and corporate aviation intelligence becoming a thriving business.
Sweeney isn’t concerned about the accounts’ future because any action against “Elon Musk’s Jet” or his other accounts tracking ultra-wealthy private jets could jeopardise Musk’s mission to champion free speech online.
