January 1, Report: Elon Musk Offered Teen $5K to Close Twitter Account Tracking His Private Flights

Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered a teenager $5,000 to shut down a Twitter account that tracks his private flights.

Jack Sweeney, 19, runs 15 flight-tracking accounts using bots that automatically post when a designated plane takes off or lands. Each tracks a high-profile person, including Bill Gates and Jeffrey Bezos.

@ElonJet, Sweeney’s account tracking Musk’s flights, is his most popular flight-tracker, with more than 133,000 followers. The account’s popularity must have caught Musk’s attention.

“I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” Musk said in a message to Sweeney.

The pair exchanged a few more messages. Musk asked Sweeney how much he makes off the accounts, which the 19-year-old said was no more than $20 a month. Musk then offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete @ElonJet to help prevent “crazy people” from tracking his location.

“Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3,” Sweeney replied.

The last exchange between Musk and Sweeney occurred more than a week ago when Sweeney said he would delete the account for free if Musk gave him an internship. Musk hasn’t opened the message yet.

Source:

A 19-year-old built a flight-tracking Twitter bot. Elon Musk tried to pay him to stop.