Taylor Swift has threatened authorized motion towards Florida undergraduate scholar Jack Sweeney, who for years has run social media accounts monitoring the non-public jet-setting of a few of the world’s most wealthy and well-known individuals.
Sweeney, 21, mentioned he obtained a cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s authorized staff in December 2023 that accused him of “stalking and harassing behavior” to do together with his chronicling of Swift’s travels on her non-public jet, the Washington Post first reported on Tuesday.
Sweeney’s accounts use publicly accessible info from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and worldwide aviation fanatics to publish details about celebrity-owned jets. The University of Central Florida scholar doesn’t say who’s travelling on the plane he tracks. Sweeney additionally doesn’t observe flights stay and waits in the future to submit particulars on-line.
Still, Swift, 34, has insisted by way of her legal professionals that Sweeney’s social media exercise has contributed to her “constant state of fear for her personal safety” and has created a “life-or-death matter” for the singer.
She claimed to have skilled “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress” over the monitoring of her non-public jet utilization.
Indeed, Swift has had many alleged stalkers — a person in New York was lately charged with harassment and stalking after he was arrested outdoors Swift’s Manhattan townhouse in January.
In an try to focus on the stakes for Swift, the singer’s lawyer, Katie Wright Morrone, advised the Washington Post that the timing of the alleged stalker’s arrival outdoors Swift’s Manhattan dwelling “suggests a connection” to Sweeney’s flight monitoring.
“His posts tell you exactly when and where she would be,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Swift’s lawyer mentioned they might “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if Sweeney doesn’t cease monitoring her flights.
Morrone speculated about whether or not Sweeney’s flight log monitoring was “a game” or “an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame.” Sweeney, nevertheless, has lengthy since mentioned his accounts are an try to carry the richest individuals on the earth accountable for his or her carbon footprints.
“This information is already out there,” Sweeney advised the Washington Post. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”
Jack Sweeney on the American Airlines Hangar.
Instagram @jacksweeney
Jack Sweeney vs. Elon Musk
Swift shouldn’t be the one superstar to have Bad Blood with Sweeney. His jet-tracking endeavours have included the likes of Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian and varied Russian oligarchs.
In 2022, Musk tried to silence Sweeney and deleted a number of of his accounts, together with his private account, from X (previously Twitter).
Amid the purge, X up to date its media and personal info coverage. It is now forbidden to share “live location information” and “other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission” on X. (Since the deletion, Sweeney has created accounts to submit about superstar flights with a 24-hour delay.)
Musk accused Sweeney of sharing “assassination coordinates” with the web.
On Tuesday, Musk voiced his help for Swift’s cease-and-desist towards Sweeney.
“Sweeney is an awful human being. Taylor Swift is right to be concerned,” Musk, 52, wrote on X.
Several of Sweeney’s social media accounts that tracked flight logs, together with @ElonJet, have been banned from X and Facebook over insistences that his posts broke the platform’s privateness guidelines.
Regardless, Sweeney’s polarizing on-line efforts earned him a spot on the Forbes 30 beneath 30 record for 2024.
Are non-public jets dangerous for the surroundings?
Aircraft are recognized to supply greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), which contributes to international warming. Though non-public jets are inbuilt a number of completely different fashions, they’re additionally recognized to usually produce a better fee of emissions per passenger than industrial flights.
Often in his posts, Sweeney will embody the price of the gas and the alleged emission charges for every flight taken by the high-profile individual he’s monitoring.
On his web page that screens Trump’s non-public jets, Sweeney claimed a latest (although undated) two-hour flight from Washington to West Palm Beach, Fla., used practically 12,440 kilos of jet gas and produced 20 tons of CO2 emissions.
Can Taylor Swift make it to the Super Bowl?
Swift’s non-public jet, which is owned and operated by her firm Firefly Entertainment, has been within the information lately for causes past her carbon footprint.
With Swift at present in Tokyo, Japan for her Eras Tour live shows, keen Swifties are already buzzing about whether or not the singer will be capable of attend the Super Bowl in Las Vegas on Sunday, the place her boyfriend Travis Kelce is enjoying for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Swift’s last Tokyo live performance is in the future earlier than the Super Bowl. Even the Japanese Embassy issued a press release about Swift’s journey dilemma and warranted that the singer would be capable of make the Super Bowl if she departed the nation within the night after her present.
The 12-hour flight, if she attends the much-anticipated match, would probably be made on Swift’s non-public jet.
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