Jack Sweeney, the college student who monitors Elon Musk's private jet, reported that his Facebook page was removed on Wednesday due to "impersonation." Sweeney expressed confusion over the decision and stated that he plans to appeal and attempt to regain access to his account. When contacted by Insider via text message, Sweeney stated that he was unsure why his page had been taken down and found it odd that it may be due to his use of Musk's name.
After sharing a screenshot of the notice he received, informing him that his page had been "unpublished" due to "Elon Musk's jet [violating] our Community Standards on impersonation," the University of Central Florida student vowed to contest Facebook's decision and regain access to his account. Despite this, Sweeney informed Insider that his account, titled "Elon Musk's Jet," was reactivated on Friday.
This isn't the first time Sweeney has faced off against social media companies in an effort to keep his accounts active. In early 2022, Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to cease sharing flight information online. Sweeney countered with a demand of $50,000, but Musk did not pursue the offer.
Sweeney employs bots to collect and post publicly available flight information that can be accessed by anyone on ADS-B Exchange.
This isn't the first instance in which Sweeney has fought to keep his social media accounts active. In early 2022, Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to cease sharing flight information online. The student countered with a demand of $50,000, but Musk did not follow through on his offer.
Sweeney has taken precautions to protect his accounts, such as creating backup pages on Facebook and Instagram, after expressing concerns about the possibility of being banned when Musk announced his intentions to acquire Twitter.
In December, Sweeney's @ElonJet Twitter account was banned. To comply with Twitter's updated policy on sharing private information that prohibits the live tracking of individuals' locations, Sweeney began tweeting flight data with a 24-hour delay under the account @ElonJetNextDay.
More than 30 other accounts that utilized public flight data to track private jet movements of prominent figures, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were also suspended by Twitter.
In a previous interview with Insider, Sweeney suggested that Twitter's owner appeared to be agitated by his account, particularly following an April 11th BBC News interview with Musk.
0 Comments