“Elon Musk offered a teenager $5,000 to shut down the account tracking his jet.”
Verdict: True, and well documented. In late 2021 Musk direct-messaged Jack Sweeney, then a 19-year-old student running @ElonJet, offering $5,000 to delete it, citing security concerns. Sweeney countered with $50,000; Musk declined, saying it 'didn't feel right to pay to shut this down'. The account survived until December 2022, when Twitter — by then owned by Musk — suspended it.
Sweeney's bot used publicly broadcast ADS-B transponder data to post the take-offs and landings of Musk's Gulfstream. In screenshots he later shared with reporters, Musk wrote that he didn't love the idea of being shot by a 'nutcase' and asked what it would take to remove the account. Sweeney replied that $5,000 wasn't enough to give up something he enjoyed, and suggested $50,000 — or an internship, or a Tesla Model 3.
Musk stopped responding in January 2022, and the story went round the world. Sweeney went on to run trackers for other public figures, and for a time the account was one of the most-followed aviation feeds anywhere.
The sequel matters too. After buying Twitter in October 2022, Musk said his commitment to free speech extended even to 'not banning the account following my plane'. Six weeks later @ElonJet and Sweeney's personal account were suspended, and Twitter introduced a rule against posting live location data. The account moved to other platforms.
One detail often garbled: the offer was $5,000, not $50,000 — the larger figure was Sweeney's counter-demand.
Sources: nbcnews.com · cnbc.com
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