Meta Bans Private Jet Trackers of Musk and Zuckerberg

“We’ve disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy due to the risk of physical harm to individuals and in accordance with the independent Oversight Board’s recommendation,” a Meta spokeswoman said in a statement. 

Jack Sweeney, a college student from Florida who has become well-known for following celebrity jets, was the operator of several of the affected accounts. Sweeney said in a letter uploaded to his Threads account that he “received no communication from Meta” regarding the bans prior to their initiation. “It seems like these platforms make decisions arbitrarily and operate without transparency,” he added.

Sweeney posted the message, “Jet tracking on Instagram and Threads got Zucked,” on his personal Threads account early on Tuesday morning. It is still accessible. He also provides information on the movements of private aircraft used by politicians such former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as well as those owned by billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Taylor Swift, and the Kardashians.

The profiles on Instagram that shared details on the jets owned by DeSantis, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Trump, and Musk have been removed. Sweeney’s “CelebJets” Instagram and Threads pages, which follow celebrities’ private planes more generally, have also been removed, as have accounts that track Musk’s and Trump’s flights, respectively.

Sweeney has previously dealt with internet companies and billionaires who wanted his accounts deleted. The account that monitored Sweeney’s private jet has long been criticized by Musk, who once referred to the data as his “assassination coordinates.” He created a new rule that prohibits disclosing someone else’s location in real time and banned Sweeney’s account shortly after purchasing X in late 2022. Musk’s plane is still tracked by Sweeney on X, but its position is posted with a 24-hour delay. 

Sweeney was ordered to stop following pop diva Taylor Swift’s private jet earlier this year by her attorneys. Sweeney’s accounts that were following Swift’s jet were deleted by Meta at the same time, but his other accounts remained unaltered. 

Sweeney claims that he is unable to file appeals to get these accounts restored and that Meta has not explained to him why they were banned. “What is the use of an oversight system if I am unable to file an appeal? “Meta’s actions are even more concerning because of this lack of transparency,” Sweeney wrote 

According to Sweeney, he has had 38 accounts banned on Meta and X, the website that was once known as Twitter. 

Some of the accounts had been posting for years without any action, so it’s unclear exactly which postings or accounts led to the abrupt bulk deletion, Sweeney told PCMag. Before the other suspensions swiftly followed, the Musk jet-tracking accounts were the first to be blocked from all of Meta’s applications. However, Sweeney stated that the Zuckerberg jet-tracking account had not updated for around a month prior to the deletion because the CEO of Meta was receiving a new aircraft.

Then, a day later, Sweeney posted the information from two new X accounts that follow Musk and Swift’s jets. As of this writing, those accounts are still accessible. However, real-time data is still available through the ElonJet Telegram, BlueSky, and Mastodon accounts. Additionally, Taylor Swift’s jet-tracking accounts on Telegram and Mastodon remain active.

The data is still accessible through the Ground Control website and other online locations, even after Meta and X made an effort to stop real-time aircraft monitoring. Other websites and applications are available to help with ADS-B flight monitoring.