Taylor Swift Threatens Legal Action Against Social Media Account That Tracks Her Private Jet
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Taylor Swift’s lawyers are threatening to sue a Florida college student who runs social media accounts that track celebrity private jets, calling it “stalking and harassing behavior.”
Jack Sweeney confirmed to Billboard on Tuesday that he received a cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s attorneys in December, warning they would have “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if he did not stop posting the locations of Swift’s private jet. The news was first reported by the Washington Post.
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Sweeney runs social media accounts that track flights by celebrities and other public figures, ranging from Kim Kardashian to Bill Gates to Donald Trump. In 2022, he was banned from X (formerly Twitter) after he posted such info for billionaire Elon Musk, the site’s owner. He cites publicly-available government flight data, alongside estimates of carbon emissions from each flight.
In the December letter, which was obtained by Billboard, Swift’s lawyers (led by Katie Wright Morrone of the firm Venable LLP) warned Sweeney that his posts posed an “imminent threat” to Swift’s “safety and wellbeing” and served “no legitimate interest” other than to “stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control.” They said Sweeney’s posts violated “several state laws,” but did not specify which ones.
“While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death matter for our client,” Morrone wrote in the letter. “Ms. Swift has dealt with stalkers and other individuals who wish her harm.”
The letter also referenced the earlier dispute with Musk, including Sweeney’s offer to delete the account for $50,000: “We are aware of your public disputes with other high-profile individuals and your tactics in those interactions, including offering to stop your harmful behavior only in exchange for items of value.”
News of the dispute with Sweeney comes just weeks after a man named David Crowe was arrested outside Swift’s Manhattan home and charged with stalking; prosecutors say Crowe was spotted more than 30 times outside her apartment and had repeatedly attempted to enter the building. In 2022, another man was arrested after he crashed his car into her building and attempted to get inside.
In Tuesday’s letter, Swift’s lawyers warned Sweeney that “you essentially provide individuals intent on physically harming her, or with nefarious or violent intentions, a roadmap to carry out their plans.”
In a statement Tuesday on the letter to Sweeney, Swift’s spokeswoman, Tree Paine, stressed the risk of stalkers: “We cannot comment on any ongoing police investigation but can confirm the timing of stalkers suggests a connection. His posts tell you exactly when and where she would be.”
According to the Post’s report, many of Sweeney’s posts are derived from government data compiled by the Federal Aviation Administration. Though celebrities can request to hide their planes from those databases — and Swift appears to have done so — volunteer hobbyists can still track such aircraft via the signals they broadcast, and they often upload such info to independent public websites.
In his own statement Tuesday, Sweeney told Billboard that “my intentions are not to cause harm” but that “I believe in the importance of transparency and public information.” He linked the pushback from Swift’s team to negative publicity she had received last year about the environmental impact of her use of private jets.
“Swift’s team suggests that I have no legitimate interest in sharing jet information, which is fundamentally incorrect,” Sweeney wrote in an email to Billboard. He said there was clear “public interest” in tracking Swift’s flights, citing last week’s statements by Japan’s U.S. embassy that it was “confident” the star would be able to attend Sunday’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas after performing in Tokyo on Saturday.
“One should reasonably expect that their jet will be tracked, whether or not I’m the one doing it, as it is public information after all,” Sweeney said.
In the Post report, Sweeney’s lawyer went even further in defending his client, calling the claims from Swift’s attorneys “hyperbolic and unfounded” and saying the posts posed “no threat” to the superstar.
UPDATE: This story was updated on Wednesday (Feb. 7) at 9:45 am ET with additional information from the cease-and-desist letter and a statement from Sweeney.
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