Taylor Swift’s lawyers threaten legal action against the 21-year-old tracking her private jet

Taylor Swift’s lawyers have threatened legal action against a 21-year-old college student. And it’s not the first time the University of Central Florida student has drawn the wrath of a celebrity.

A cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s attorneys sent in December demanded Jack Sweeney stop tracking her private jet’s trips, as initially reported by the Washington Post. Sweeney runs Ground Central — a page devoted to sharing the already-public information about the private jet landings and takeoffs of celebrities and other notable figures.

Here’s what you should know.

Sweeney began sharing flight data in June 2020 through a Twitter account called The ElonJet, devoted to following Elon Musk’s travels. For the then-high school senior, it was a way to pass the time while school was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sweeney’s father was an American Airlines technician and taught him about flight tracking when he was young as a way to check on when his dad would be home, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

But in fall 2021, Musk asked Sweeney to take down the account, calling it a “security risk.”

A public exchange between Musk and Sweeney ensued — the then-college freshman requested a Tesla in exchange for scrapping the account. Musk countered with $5,000. Sweeney clapped back asking the billionaire for $50,000. Musk then blocked him — which only brought more attention to Sweeney’s efforts. At one point, his account following Musk’s flight data had more than 530,000 followers.

But after Musk took over as CEO of X (then Twitter) in 2022, a slew of journalist and flight-tracking accounts, including several of Sweeney’s, were suspended.

Sweeney countered by launching his website, Ground Central, hosting trackers (and alternate accounts) for Musk, Swift, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Kim Kardashian, and others. He also pivoted to releasing the data on a 24-hour delay to address privacy concerns — despite the fact that the account is still just posting publicly available Federal Aviation Administration and jet broadcast data.

Sweeney runs several accounts that track Swift’s flights, including on X, Reddit, BlueSky, and Mastadon.

In December, Sweeney’s account shared a post estimating the carbon footprint left by Swift’s Eras Tour-related travel along with her trips to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce’s football games with the Kansas City Chiefs — estimated at 138 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in three months. Shortly after, Sweeney’s flight-tracking accounts for Swift were suspended on Instagram and Facebook. The accounts he runs for Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, and others remain in place.

A letter from Swift’s lawyers said the singer would be forced to pursue legal action unless Sweeney stops the “stalking and harassing behavior.” The letter was sent around the same time as Sweeney’s post about Swift’s carbon footprint.

Sweeney insists he doesn’t mean any harm.

In a statement emailed to The Inquirer, he said he enjoys Swift’s music and believes in “transparency and public information.” He added that Meta suspended his @taylorswiftjets Instagram, Threads, and Facebook accounts “only hours” after he received the cease-and-desist letter.

“This situation bears a striking resemblance to December 2022 when Musk threatened legal action against me, following his claim that someone was targeting him. However, open-source intelligence (OSINT) has disproven these allegations,” he said. “Swift’s team suggests that I have no legitimate interest in sharing jet information, which is fundamentally incorrect. Her fans, who have grown the TaylorSwiftJets accounts and subreddit, are the ones truly interested.”

As noted by The Verge, scrutiny toward flight data, fuel use, and greenhouse gas emissions — known informally as “flight shaming” — began to take off around 2018 with the help of activists like Greta Thunberg. Swift’s usage has been considered among the top of celebrity carbon footprints over the years.

Her team refuted the reports, saying Swift’s jet is regularly loaned out to others. A spokesperson also said the singer buys carbon offsets to compensate for her jet travel.

Ahead of the Super Bowl, where Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs will face off against the San Francisco 49ers, Swift’s unconfirmed travel plans are already being scrutinized.

If she flew from Tokyo, where she’ll be for her Eras Tour on Feb. 10, to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl on Feb. 11, and then to Melbourne to resume her tour by Feb. 16, she’d travel roughly 14,000 miles and could burn nearly 9,000 gallons of fuel, according to the Washington Post. That’s more than all the carbon emissions six average Americans will produce this year.

Sweeney says the interest in Swift’s traveling proves the value of the accounts.

“These tracking accounts consistently have more supporters and fans,” he said. “When the Embassy of Japan in the USA expresses confidence that Swift can make a flight from Tokyo to the Super Bowl, it indicates public interest. Therefore, one should reasonably expect that their jet will be tracked, whether or not I’m the one doing it, as it is public information after all.”