Attorneys for Taylor Swift are threatening legal action against the Florida college student who tracks the private jets of celebrities and public figures, including Swift.
Jack Sweeney confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that he received a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action from attorneys for Swift about the social media accounts he runs that track Swift’s flights. The news was first reported by the Washington Post.
Sweeney is the same person who famously drew ire from billionaire Elon Musk for tracking his jet travels online. Musk, who owns X, disbanded Sweeney’s account “@ElonJet” on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter in December 2022.
Read more at CNN.
While Swift has an understandable privacy and safety concern, as do others tracked by Sweeney and others, is there any legal basis for prohibiting Sweeney or anyone else from using and publishing publicly available data? PogoWasRight thinks that there is none for this situation and the lack of opinion pieces or discussions by law firms suggests that no firm wants to be publicly associated with telling Musk or Swift that they don’t have a winnable case. Of course, that doesn’t mean that those whose jets are tracked can’t try to bankrupt Sweeney by launching lawsuits that will have to be defended. PogoWasRight suspects that if that happens, EFF or the ACLU will represent Sweeney and cite the First Amendment and anti-SLAPP laws.