Several Threads accounts displaying publicly available data regarding private jet travel for some of the world’s richest and most famous people have been silenced.
The year-old Meta-owned social media platform abruptly suspended an account on Monday showing the flight paths of the private jet owned by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Meta, along with several other accounts showing similar data for the private jet Elon Musk uses. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, and Kylie Jenner. On Friday, an account tracking Taylor Swift’s plane was suspended.
All of the accounts were maintained by Jack Sweeney, a college student who gained some public notoriety when Musk took over Twitter in 2022 and banned the same type of plane-tracking accounts, including one in which Sweeney had been tracking Musk’s private plane. Sweeney moved much of his plane-tracking activity to the subject of the dispute with Musk.
Post to Topics from his personal accountSweeney said all of the plane tracking accounts he maintains on the Meta platform have been suspended over the past few days, except for two: one that follows the plane used by former President Donald Trump and the other that follows the plane used by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Very strange,” Sweeney added.
Although all private aircraft data displayed in Sweeney’s Threads accounts is publicly available and maintained by the US Federal Aviation Administration, sharing the information via social media has drawn the ire of many celebrity jet owners, who complain it infringes on intellectual property rights. Their privacy.
Although Musk and Swift were politically opposed, Sweeney threatened to file lawsuits, referring to the aircraft accounts as “assassination coordinates” (Musk) and “stalking and harassing behavior” (Swift).
Sweeney’s accounts do not show exactly where the planes or their passengers travel. Neither Musk nor Swift have taken any formal legal action against him.
In a text message with Fortune, Sweeney said he received no explanation or opportunity to appeal. “If you log in, it will only be black.”
A Meta representative did not respond to an email seeking comment.
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