Elon Musk offers $5,000 to a teenager to stop showing the movements of his jet on Twitter

On By Garmin Philip

Five thousand dollars for removing a bot on Twitter. For the vast majority of mortals who move through the blue bird network, it is an offer with a more than respectable sum, but for Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, it represents only a tiny part of his multimillion-dollar portfolio. That is why, a couple of months ago, he did not shake his pulse when he raised it with a 19-year-old teenager from Florida. Why did he do it? For a very simple reason: the young, Jack Sweeney, managed since 2020 a profile (@elonJet) that is dedicated to report jet movements de Musk.

Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida (UCF), where he is studying Information Technology, has created a dozen and a half accounts in which, with the help of bots, he tracks the movement of the private planes of great tycoons in the sector, such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos or Musk himself. To this day, the one that follows in the footsteps of the jet of the founder of SpaceX already adds 165,400 followers. And up. As detailed in the account itself, the monitoring is achieved with public ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) data. Thanks to that information, you can define the route even of the ships that appear in the list Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed.

I don’t want to be shot by a madman

Probably uncomfortable with the popularity of the account, Musk wrote to Sweeney on November 30 to ask him to stop tracking his jet. The conversation was maintained via Twitter, by private messages, but Daily Mail He has reproduced the screenshots, in which the verified account of the tycoon can be seen. “Can you remove this? It’s a security risk”, starts Musk. Sweeney’s response came several hours later and he blasts him. With a tone halfway between irony and negotiation, he replied: I would give in, yes; but he wanted something in return.

“Yes I can, but it will cost you a Model 3. Just kidding, unless… I understand your concerns, which are totally reasonable,” starts Sweeney, who recognizes himself as an admirer of the billionaire and explains that he started the project when he was in high school with the purpose of following in the footsteps of Musk’s business: “I never intended for it to create a security problem.” The young man assures that starting the account required an effort that he now makes profitable with “some income” that helps him with university expenses. “So it would be nice to be able to get something from her; but yes, I will do something to respect your request”, ditch.

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When Musk asks how much money he makes from his Twitter account, Sweeney reckons it’s just $20 a month and explains how he manages to follow in the footsteps of the jet. “I don’t know if you are aware or not, but all planes have transpondedores ADS-B that transmit telemetry. Of course, each aircraft can be identified.” “Always the same code? Air traffic control is primitive,” replies Musk, who warns: “I don’t like the idea of ​​being shot by a madman.”

After discussing how Sweeney gets the data and the chances that his jet can be tracked, Musk asks the key question: How about five thousand dollars on this account and generally help make it a little harder for the crazies to track me down?” “It sounds feasible, the bill and all my help,” replies the young man, who nevertheless proposes adding one more zero to the offer: “Is there any chance of going up to $50,000? It would be a great support in college and would probably get me a car, maybe even a Model 3. I’d love to help you.”

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Receiving no instant reply, Sweeney insisted, “Mr. Musk, I’m still here if you want the account and help. I have also come up with a few more solutions.” The feedback from the Tesla founder came hours later: “I’m thinking about it.” And until today. At least according to Sweeney, who claims not to have received any income from the tycoon. The young man, yes, has slightly changed his offer and now asks Musk to change the payment for, directly, an internship.

The truth is that, at least as we write this article, @ElonJet continues to report the movements of Musk’s plane. Of course, without being able to specify who is on board. Perhaps to calm things down, on January 3 he tweeted: “We have to remember to keep our limits, if we don’t it may have to be forcibly removed. ElonJet was started to follow the movements of businesses, not for people to ambush Elon at airports”.

Cover image | Daniel Oberhaus (Flickr)



Reference-www.xataka.com