HAWTHORNE, Calif. — The 19-year-old who created a Twitter account tracking Elon Musk's private jet was reportedly offered $5,000 by the billionaire to take it down.
Jack Sweeney, who runs @ElonJet, told tech news outlet Protocol the exchange between him and the SpaceX CEO happened last fall.
“Can you take this down? It is a security risk," the initial DM from Musk allegedly read.
Sweeney's account has been on Twitter since June 2020 and, as of this writing, has amassed 94.5K followers.
"Tracking Elon Musk's Private Jet(N628TS) with a bot using public ADS-B data," the @ElonJet bio reads.
On his page, you'll find tweets that show a screenshot of a plane being tracked, where it landed, or where it took off from. Some tweets even include the projected flight time.
While Sweeney told Protocol that Musk offered him $5,000 to delete the account, the 19-year-old had something else in mind.
“Yes I can but it’ll cost you a Model 3 only joking unless?” One reply to Musk read, according to the news outlet.
Another is reported to have asked the billionaire to add a 0 to his offer to up it to $50,000, Protocol reports.
So far, the two haven't come to any deal.
In a recent Twitter post, Sweeney appeared to defend his account saying that it has "every right" to post the whereabouts of jets.
"If you want to complain to someone tell the ICAO to make a more privacy-focused ADS-B system. Taking down my account won't fix the issue, my code is open-sourced others said they would recreate it anyway," the tweet reads.
"Taking down this account doesn't stop someone determined from doing something bad they could still go to other websites," he later added.