NEW YORK (CNN Business) — Jack Sweeney, 19, of Florida, has rejected a $5,000 offer from Elon Musk to delete his Twitter account, which tracks the billionaire’s private jet.
ElonJet’s account has more than 150,000 followers, and uses a bot developed by Sweeney to monitor Musk’s flights, then tweet when and where the plane takes off or land and for the duration of each flight.
The college freshman has developed about a dozen other bot accounts that track the travels of notable tech giants, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
The initial direct message from Musk came on November 30, the protocol first reported.
Musk asked Sweeney, “Can you remove this? It’s a security risk.”
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX eventually offered the teen $5,000 to help prevent “crazy people” from tracking his flights. Sweeney responded with a $50,000 request, saying he could use the money for college and possibly one of his company’s Tesla Model 3 cars.
Their last exchange of letters was on Wednesday, January 19, when Musk said it wasn’t right “to pay to close this”. CNN Business has reviewed the messages.
“Options other than rewards, such as training, would make removing it a lot easier,” Sweeney replied. Mask did not respond to him yet.
CNN has contacted SpaceX for comment.
Sweeney said he’s been a fan of SpaceX since the first Falcon Heavy launched in 2018. His father works for an airline, which fueled his interest in aviation.
“5000 isn’t enough for how much I get out of it,” Sweeney said. “It doesn’t replace anything, like the fun factor.”
And Sweeney offered some technical advice to Musk, telling the billionaire about a ban he could use to counter flight tracking software.
“It appears he took that advice,” Sweeney said, adding that it appears that Musk is currently using the blocking software.
Is Sweeney still able to track Musk’s travels despite the blocking program? “I (I do). It’s a little more complicated,” Sweeney said.