Jet-tracker who watched Zuckerberg, Trump, Musk says Meta has banned his accounts

Meta has removed accounts that track the plane movements of its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, former President Trump and others, account owner Jack Sweeney said Tuesday.

“Today brings a sense of déjà vu, reminiscent of all my accounts getting suspended on Twitter. My Instagram and Threads account, @elonmusksjet, has been suspended once again,” Sweeney shared in a statement on Threads. “Unlike previous suspensions, where warnings or status updates were provided along with reasons, this time the account simply appears blacked out, with no options to interact or receive information.”

The Florida college student has been tracking celebrity movements for years, leading to the suspension of a then-Twitter tracking account in 2022, followed by Taylor Swift’s threat to take legal action against him this year.

Sweeney claims that his actions, which make use of publicly available data, are lawful and crucial for journalists tracking major partnerships with company leaders and carbon emissions related to the executives' trips.

“[Musk] has so many companies you can see when he’s spending time on X, Tesla or Space X by visiting different places. He’s taken tons of flights to Pennsylvania for his America PAC events in the last few days,” Sweeney told The Hill. “It’s a lot of flights from him and the timing of it just leads me to believe that there’s someone, I don’t know who, that I tracked that obviously contacted Meta.”

The Hill has reached out to Meta for comment.

After being blocked from logging into his Meta tracking accounts, Sweeney said he has tried to email the company but is not expecting a response.

Meta told TechCrunch the accounts were disabled for “violating our privacy policy.”

But Sweeney believes both X and Meta “selectively” enforce their rules allowing some accounts to remain active while others are taken down.

“I've been tracking jets on Instagram for a long time, and about 10 months ago, my account tracking Taylor Swift's jets (@taylorswiftjets) was suspended. Yet, my other jet-tracking accounts continued to operate just fine, showing a clear case of selective enforcement,” he said. “This is likely due to Meta's partnership with Swift, resulting in special treatment. It raises serious questions about fairness, given that other jet-tracking accounts-unrelated to Swift-remained active while hers were removed.”

When his Twitter accounts tracking Musk were removed, he revamped them with a day long delay in posts. Sweeney told The Hill that if Meta gave him the option, he’d do the same on their platform.

“If they [accounts] were turned back on and I was given the chance to delay posts I would. But if not I’m going to move to other platforms,” Sweeney said, adding that Telegram, Reddit and Madaston were all viable options.

“Given the risk of physical harm to individuals, and in keeping with the independent Oversight Board’s recommendation, we’ve disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.