Teen rejects Elon Musk’s $5,000 offer to shut down jet tracker

A 19-year-old Florida college scholar and aviation fanatic says he rejected a $5,000 supply from Elon Musk to close down @ElonJet, a Twitter bot he designed that tracks the comings and goings of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s personal jet.

In an interview Monday, Jack Sweeney, a College of Central Florida freshman, reported that Musk blocked him after he declined the buyout supply — however not earlier than the 2 had a month-and-a-half-long dialogue.

Musk didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark made via Tesla.

He first reached out to Sweeney on Nov. 30, in keeping with screenshots of Twitter messages reviewed by NBC Information, and Musk requested him for particulars about how the bot labored, remarked that air site visitors management is “primitive” and mentioned, “I don’t love the thought of being shot by a nutcase.”

Sweeney later requested Musk to “up” his $5,000 supply to $50,000, about the price of a Tesla Mannequin 3, which Musk thought-about for over a month, earlier than Sweeney mentioned he would additionally think about eradicating the account for an internship.

Then, a while after Jan. 23, Musk blocked him.

Sweeney mentioned he has been keen on aviation and “the whole lot Elon Musk and Tesla” for years earlier than Musk reached out to him.

“He simply finally ends up messaging me one evening at, like, 1 a.m.,” Sweeney mentioned, including that Musk first mentioned the bot was a safety threat however offered no proof.

Sweeney mentioned he believed Musk “just a little bit” concerning the safety threat however that he felt that as a result of he has a safety staff, any concern was “simply fear.”

Sweeney famous that non-public planes have built-in expertise that permits them to be tracked however acknowledged that there must be “adjustments to how the entire system works,” which most likely isn’t attainable.

“It might be like making a change to everyone’s telephone that they’re utilizing each day,” Sweeney mentioned. “It’s not like you might simply simply change the system.”

Sweeney mentioned he advised Musk about one other aviation monitoring blocking program, which Sweeney mentioned Musk used final week.

“He might need thought that might have labored and he might simply, like, ignore me,” Sweeney mentioned of the blocker. “It doesn’t actually make that a lot of a distinction.”

Sweeney additionally runs jet trackers for billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos and former President Donald Trump.

Sweeney mentioned he has no plans to take down @ElonJet. As of Monday, the newest flight tracked mentioned the jet landed near Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday evening.