ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —
The UCF student sharing the tracking information of Taylor Swift’s private jet has clapped back at the pop star’s attorneys, claiming the accusations made in a cease-and-desist letter they sent him do not amount to stalking or harassment.
Jack Sweeney uploaded the letter his legal counsel sent to Swift’s team in a post on X with the caption ‘Look What You Made Me Do’, referring to a track off Swift’s Reputation album.
His attorneys wrote that there is “nothing unlawful” about Sweeney’s activity because he uses “publicly accessible information to track private jets”, claiming that the posts constitute “protected speech that does not violate any of Ms. Swift’s legal rights.”
In the initial cease-and-desist letter sent to Sweeney by Swift’s legal team, her attorneys argued the now-deactivated social media accounts under the username @TaylorSwiftJets created a threat to Swift’s safety.
“Because the Offending Accounts share ’live’ updates on her destination and the exact time [Swift] will arrive at a given location, you essentially provide individuals intent on physically harming her... a roadmap to carry out their plans,” Swift’s attorneys wrote.
The cease-and-desist was sent to Sweeney on December 22, 2023.
Just hours later, Meta banned the accounts from its platforms, Sweeney said in a statement he gave to WKMG.
According to reporting from the Washington Post, Sweeney then began posting Swifts’ real-time flight information to an account he uses to track the air travel of a range of celebrities, called Celeb Jets.
Swift’s attorneys then sent a follow-up to their original cease-and-desist letter, demanding Sweeney not post the details of her travel to that account either.
The @CelebrityJets account currently does not have any posts relating to Taylor Swift’s travel. However, Sweeney has since created a new account on X that shares Swift’s flight information with a 24-hour delay. The account first became active just a few days after Sweeney received the cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s legal team.
In the response to the cease-and-desist, Sweeney’s attorneys wrote that they are “doubtful” Swift will follow through with legal action, but that they will defend Sweeney if that were to happen.
Swift and her legal team have not commented on Sweeney’s latest response.
