The college student who was abruptly banned from Twitter for running an account tracking new owner Elon Musk’s private jet is laughing off the billionaire’s legal threats. 

‘I do think it’s a bluff, but we’ll have to see,’ 20-year-old Jack Sweeney told the New York Post on Thursday, a day after Musk threatened ‘legal action’ against the student over his automated ElonJet account.

‘We’ll have to see if I get an official notice from anything,’ said the University of Central Florida sophomore, who said he is ‘talking to a few people’ about a potential lawsuit from the world’s richest man. 

Musk, who previously vowed not to ban the ElonJet account, abruptly reversed course on Wednesday and quashed the account, after he said a stalker followed and harassed his toddler son in Los Angeles.

Musk had said in a tweet in November that his commitment to free speech ‘extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk’. Musk previously called himself a ‘free speech absolutist’.

College student Jack Sweeney (left) shrugged off Elon Musk’s threats to sue him over a Twitter account that tracked the billionaire’s private jet, which Musk has now banned 

But on Wednesday he announced a new policy, saying:  ‘Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.’.

‘Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok,’ added Musk, without offering further details.

The billionaire also tweeted that one of his sons, lil X, had been harassed, and linked it to the tracking accounts.

‘Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood,’ he said, also sharing a video clip of the alleged stalker.

‘Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.’

Sweeney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Thursday. 

In previous media interviews, including with DailyMail.com, Sweeney said he turned down a $5,000 offer from Musk in 2021 to shut down the ElonJet account, which had more than half a million followers.

Sweeney is a University of Central Florida sophomore studying computer science

 

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Sweeney, who is studying information technology, had created more than 15 Twitter bots tracking the private planes of tech billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos – but the account tracking Musk’s jet was by far the most popular. 

Although the information Sweeney relies on is all public, his program requires sophisticated knowledge to match transponder frequencies with separately available anonymous flight plans.

It is unclear what legal action Musk could take against Sweeney for an account that automatically posted public flight information.

Before Wednesday, the ElonJet had more than 526,000 followers.

‘He said this is free speech and he´s doing the opposite,’ Sweeney said in an interview with The Associated Press. 

Musk echoed the updated guidelines in a tweet, noting that sharing live locations is dangerous, but users are still allowed to show their own locations – just not anyone else’s.

The new policy prohibits users from sharing individual’s ‘home address or physical location information, including street addresses, GPS coordinates or other identifying information related to locations that are considered private.’

Twitter has added other items such as identity documents, government-issued IDs, social security or other national identity numbers.

And posting media of private individuals will also get your account suspended.

While Sweeney is suspended on Twitter, he has similar accounts tracking Musk’s jet on Facebook and Instagram that are still online.