UCF Student Jack Sweeney still refuses to take down the Twitter account used to track Elon Musk’s jet even after the billionaire recently bought the social media company according to an article he wrote for Newsweek.com.
Sweeney, a 20 year old UCF Sophomore who runs the twitter account ElonJet, which tracks where the Tesla CEO’s jet is at all times has gained a substantial following of almost 500 thousand during run. Enough to get the attention of Musk himself who asked Sweeney to take down the account citing “security concerns” and even offered the Sophomore Knight five thousand dollars to do so in November of 2021.
Sweeney has refused to do so and will continue to not take down the account even with Musk now in charge of Twitter and purchasing the company for a reported $40 billion.
“Musk offered me $5k to take it down, but for the amount of work I had put in, and for how much I enjoyed it, I didn’t want to give it up for an amount that wasn’t life-changing,” Sweeney said.
Musk proceeded to block Sweeney in January of this year but has since unblocked the account when talks of buying Twitter started to arise this summer.
Sweeney says that he isn’t worried about the possibility of Musk banning his account because of the negative media coverage that would most likely follow.
“I’m not worried now that Musk owns Twitter,” Sweeney said. “If he banned ElonJet, the news would be all over it, so I don’t think he will do it. That being said, there’s always a chance.”
Sweeney says as long as the account still garners interest and attention then the Twitter account will continue to stay.
I’ve kept my account going for over two years for the same reason why I didn’t sell it for $5k: it’s my project and people are interested in it,” Sweeney said. “Even though some people won’t like it, I’m not going to stop. There’s always going to be haters.”
With this being said, Sweeney has admitted that he still has a price in mind for taking the account down the account is Musk wanted to talk.
“I would consider selling the account to Elon Musk if the criteria were right,” Sweeney said. “I’d still want $50k or a Tesla. It’s always been my dream car.”
