Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Picture Alliance/Getty Images
- Elon Musk offered the owner of an account called “Elon’s Jet” $5,000 to remove it, Protocol reported.
- The account uses public data to track the location of Musk’s private jet.
- Its owner countered with an offer of $50,000 but has not heard back from Musk.
Elon Musk messaged the owner of a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, with an offer of $5,000 if he took the account offline, tech news site Protocol reports.
The “Elon’s Jet” account shows the movements of Musk’s private jet, using bots that monitor publicly available air traffic data.
Per Protocol, the owner of the account, 19 year-old Jack Sweeney, received a message in fall last year at 12:13 a.m. from Musk. It said: “Can you take this down? It is a security risk.”
Sweeney replied: “Yes I can but it’ll cost you a Model 3 only joking unless?” per Protocol.
Musk said: “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” according to Protocol.
Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 after a few messages back and forth, Protocol reported.
“Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3,” Sweeney responded, per Protocol.
According to the outlet, Musk said he would think about it but has not been back in touch.
When Sweeney told Musk where he was aggregating the data from, Musk responded: “Air traffic control is so primitive,” Protocol reported.
It’s not clear whether Protocol viewed the Twitter messages.
Musk tweeted earlier this month that social-media accounts tracking his movements are “becoming a security issue.”
Jack Sweeney did not immediately respond when contacted out-of-hours for comment. Insider was not immediately able to contact Elon Musk.
