“Can you take this down? It is a security risk.”
That’s how Elon Musk opened a conversation with 19-year-old Jack Sweeney over Twitter DM last fall. He was referencing a Twitter account, called @ElonJet, which tracks the movements of his private jet around the world.
Here is DMs between them:
“How about $US5k for this account and generally helping make it harder for crazy people to track me?” Musk asked.
Sweeney responded: “Sounds doable, account and all my help. Any chance to up that to $US50K?”
Musk said he would think about Sweeney’s counter-offer, then later said “doesn’t feel right to pay to shut this down.”
The 19-year-old cited college funding and told the billionaire the money could go towards buying a Tesla Model 3.
Musk did not respond when contacted for comment by Insider.
Sweeney told Insider Musk appears to have implemented some of his technical advice, using a blocking system that changes his jet’s identifier making it harder to track.
“I just have to work around it,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney told Insider he had decided to go public with Musk’s offer because the billionaire had lost interest in a deal.
“He went the opposite way of me, so why wouldn’t I go the opposite way of him?” he said.
Sweeney started Elon Musk’s Jet Twitter account in June 2020.
“I’ve done a lot of work on this and 5k is not enough,” Sweeney said in an interview with Insider. He added $US5,000 wasn’t enough to replace “the fun I have in this, working on it.”
