In a world where reigns technologywhere everything is traceable and leave one fingerprintthe computer programmer jack sweeney Had an idea: ‘track‘ the private jet tech tycoon Elon Musk. Later, he went further: in June 2020 he created the account of Twitter @ElonJet Y since then it publishes all the trips made by the creator of Tesla. The businessman has repeatedly asked Sweeney, who is 19 years old, not to publish this information for “security”. He even offered her money to stop his activity, without success. Now that the Twitter board and Musk have agreed to buy the platform for 41,000 million euros, the programmer fears that his account, which has 428,500 thousand followers, will be closed.
Public Data Automation
Several websites report all the flights that take place in the world, whether commercial airlines like private aircraft. Moreover, it is public information. But Sweeney gets the information using data Public ADS-B. That is, it queries the surveillance system with which aircraft can actively transmit their positions based on gps. Specifically, it does so through ADS-B Exchangethe world’s largest source of open, unblocked and unfiltered flight data.
Also, as a good programmer, he extracts information from automated way and post it on Twitter through a bot.
Musk’s jet traveled through Texas this Wednesday
The account publishes all the movements made by Musk’s private plane. In fact, he travels almost daily. In this sense, the last trip of Musk’s private jet was this Wednesday. Specifically, it took off from Brownsvillein Texas, and landed 41 minutes later in Austinthe capital of the southern state.
Landed in Austin, Texas, US. Appx. ft. time 41 Mins. pic.twitter.com/P57PX5qMJf
— ElonJet (@ElonJet) April 26, 2022
Musk has Sweeney blocked
Although the data is public, Musk was upset with the information from the @ElonJet account. “Could you delete this? It’s a security risk,” the businessman wrote to him privately, as reported by the programmer through his personal account (@JxckSweeney) in the fall of 2021.
Faced with his refusal, the tycoon offered him $5,000 (4,758 euros) to cease its activity. He did not succeed, on the contrary: he was met with the answer “it is not enough” and with a counteroffer of $50,000 (4.7590 euros) to give in to his request, the ‘Protocol’ website reported last January.
According to this medium, the programmer gave a reason for the large figure: “It would be a great support in the university and possibly allow me to buy a car,” he would have said. The reaction of the creator of Tesla was instantaneous: “I’ll think about it”, he replied, while blocked the account from Sweeney (@JxckSweeney), who has 127.6K followers.
Freedom of expression problem
It is not new that the employer has a problem with the freedom of expression On twitter. With the purchase already made, he has promised that the social network will limit itself to censoring only what is illegal. This is worrying in the United States, since a change of course could open the door to misinformation and hatred, as well as the return of former President Donald Trump, who was banned from the platform after the storming the capitolin January 2021.
Therefore, Sweeney has posted on Twitter: “Your recent tweet seems to make it seem like I’m staying, but if you consider @ElonJet a security risk rather than a criticism then I’m probably leaving,” he says, referring to his account be suppressed.
An update on Elon Musk & @ElonJet it remains unknown if Elon would take down ElonJet if he takes over Twitter.
— Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney) April 25, 2022
The programmer smells the money and looks for a deal
Related news
In this sense, and knowing that Musk continues to have a well-filled wallet despite paying $54.20 for each Twitter actionSweeney has publicly proposed to the tycoon to reach a Economic agreement. Questioning him directly, despite being blocked, the programmer tells him that “the talks They don’t have to end, just PM me again. I’m still willing to take it down if we find anything.”
If they reach an agreement, be it for 5,000 dollars or 50,000, or any other astronomical figure with which the creator of Tesla moves, Sweeney does not plan to stop publishing the tycoon’s private jet flights. Your account is deleted or you leave voluntarily, the programmer warns: “All my monitoring is also on my server. Discordand soon I will publish a channel of Telegram for @ElonJet.”
@elonmusk Negotiations don’t have to be over just DM me again, I’m still up for taking it down if we figure something out.
— Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney) April 25, 2022
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism