Student Jack Sweeney posts publicly available flight data for celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Elon Musk online. Those affected don’t find this funny at all and send their lawyers.
You can’t even fly a private jet in peace – at least if your name is Taylor Swift. Because the currently biggest pop superstar on the planet is being followed digitally by US student Jack Sweeney, who regularly publishes the movements of a number of celebrities’ planes.
To do this, the young man uses publicly available data and spreads it on various social media channels. A problem for Swift and her management: Several US media outlets have now reported that her lawyers had already sent the student a cease-and-desist letter in December.
Taylor Swift is afraid of stalkers
Sweeney’s publications caused “direct and irreparable harm, emotional and physical distress” to Swift and her family, it said, according to the Washington Post. This increased the “constant state of fear for their personal safety”. For the 34-year-old, unlike Sweeney, it is “a matter of life and death.” A spokeswoman for Swift was also quoted as saying that stalkers were a big problem for Swift and that there was evidence of a connection between the flight data and the persecution of the artist. In the letter, Swift’s lawyers threaten to use all “legal remedies available.”
Swift, who made history over the weekend by winning her fourth album Grammy, is at the height of her fame. Her “Eras” world tour is reportedly the most successful in music history.
Sweeney responded to the legal letter via the media: He viewed the letter as an attempt to stop Swift from sharing public information and argued that the information he disseminated did not paint a complete picture of where she was. In this context, he also mentioned to the Washington Post that other dates about Swift’s public appointments, such as concerts or NFL games by her football friend Travis Kelce, also played a role. Sweeney added that the cease-and-desist letter was sent at a time when Swift was being criticized for the environmental impact of her flights.
The student is not new to public attention for his work: at the end of 2022 he already aroused the ire of US billionaire Elon Musk. His platform Twitter, now X, blocked Sweeney’s account, which had published Musk’s flight movements. Musk explained that it had violated the internet platform’s user guidelines. He had previously announced that he was so committed to freedom of speech that he allowed the account, even though it posed a risk to his security.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
