Jack Sweeney, the controversial college student known for tracking and sharing the live location of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s private jet, has moved to Twitter’s newest rival, Threads. He joined the new Meta app shortly after its launch on July 6. Sweeney is already available on Instagram, where he posts real-time updates for every take-off and landing of Musk’s jet. He plans to do the same on Threads.
Sweeney has been tracking Musk’s private airplane since 2020. He primarily used Twitter to publish the data, which he obtained from public sources, until his suspension in December last year (more on that later). His efforts garnered him around 500,000 followers on the platform, encouraging him to launch similar bots to track the private jets of other prominent personalities, including Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, and Mark Zuckerberg.
However, in December last year, new Twitter owner Elon Musk suspended all of Sweeney’s Twitter accounts, citing policy violations. “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info,” Musk said, announcing the ban. Meanwhile, Sweeney continued his operations on other social platforms, including Instagram.
Now, with Meta launching a Twitter rival in the form of Threads, he has quickly moved to it. “@zuck will I be allowed to stay,” Sweeney posted on the new app tagging Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. As said earlier, the college student also has bots tracking private jets of other celebrities on Instagram, including Zuckerberg himself. He’s bringing those to Threads as well. But like on other platforms, Musk’s jet tracker is getting more popularity on Threads.
Jack Sweeney is getting better exposure on Threads
Sweeney is getting a lot better exposure on the new platform. As of this writing, the “ElonMusksJet” account on Threads has over 60,000 followers on Threads, which is more than on Instagram (47,000 followers). This is despite the new app being heavily connected with Instagram, keeping the same user names, display pictures, block settings, and more. Since Meta currently doesn’t allow auto-posting on Threads using bots, Sweeney is manually sharing his Instagram posts. He hopes that the company will add bot support down the line.
Sweeney has one more complaint with Instagram and Threads. Meta hasn’t allowed him to use the @ElonJet handle on the platforms, even though no one is already using it. He has no love for Twitter, though. “I’m honestly hoping Twitter dies,” Sweeney told Business Insider. “As I am hindered on there, you search for my name; [it] seems I’m search banned.” He still posts on Twitter but with a 24-hour delay. The platform’s rules don’t allow him to share someone’s live location. His trackers also include the distance covered by the jet, fuel used, cost of fuel, and approximate carbon emissions.
2023-07-10 15:06:18