Ella Scott
A college student who previously made headlines for tracking Elon Musk’s private jet has said he’s had his Facebook page deactivated for ‘impersonation’.
Jack Sweeney, 20, is an American programmer best known for successfully tracking the private jets of Elon Musk and various Russian oligarchs.
The University of Central Florida student has previously been offered $5,000 by Musk, 51, to take down the Twitter account @ElonJet, and cease tracking his movements in the sky.
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At the time, Sweeney said he would cease tracking private jets but only if Musk increased the offer to $50,000.
However, Musk seemingly declined and decided to take matters into his own hands by deactivating @ElonJet in December 2022.
After having the @ElonJet account removed, Sweeney created @ElonJetNextDay. The latter account tweets out flight data with a 24-hour delay.
The slowed-down information doesn’t technically share individuals’ live locations and thus adheres to the social media’s private information policy
Following the removal of the account from Twitter, Sweeney now runs the ElonJet service via Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Telegram and Truth Social.
But according to a recent text message exchange with Insider, Sweeney temporarily lost another ElonJet outlet recently.
He told the aforementioned publication that his Facebook page was deactivated on Wednesday, April 12 for 'impersonation'.
“I don’t know what it is,” he told the publication. “If it’s because I’m using [Elon Musk’s] name, it’s weird.”
Sweeney also sent Insider a screenshot of the alleged reasoning Facebook gave him for taking down the page.
The notice reads: “Your Page has been unpublished. This is because Elon Musk’s Jet goes against our Community Standards on impersonation.
“We have these standards because we want everyone to feel safe, respected and welcome.
“If your content goes against our Community Standards again, your account may be restricted or disabled.
“You can disagree with the decision if you think we got it wrong."
Sweeney said that he was ready to appeal Facebook’s decision, however, the page was reinstated on Friday, April 21.
UNILAD has contacted Meta for a comment.
Sweeney v Musk isn’t the only reason that the latter has been making the news recently.
Earlier this week, Musk executed Order 66 and removed the legacy verifications from celebrities and public figures via Twitter.
The likes of Last of Us actor Bella Ramsey and Premier League footballer Mason Mount have exited the platform, with many disgruntled about no longer having their blue tick.
Following the removal of his verification, Radio 1 presenter Greg James took to Twitter and wrote: “I’ve lost my blue tick but your rocket blew up so who’s the real loser.”
James, 37, is referring to Musk’s SpaceX Starship which exploded shortly after launching for the first time.
The test flight was due to last 1.5 hours but the 120-metre rocket exploded dramatically seconds after takeoff.
Addressing the incident, the SpaceX account took to Twitter and wrote: “As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation.”
Following the failure, Musk took to Twitter himself and said he's preparing a second launch attempt, writing: “All systems currently green for launch.”