The college student who tracks private jets of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Taylor Swift says his Meta Threads accounts were suspended

Kali Hays

Several Threads accounts showing publicly available data regarding the private jet travel of some of the world’s wealthiest and most famous people have been silenced.<div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">



The year-old social media platform, owned by Meta, on Monday abruptly suspended an account showing flight paths of the private jet owned by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and cofounder of Meta, along with several other accounts showing similar data for the private jet use of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, and Kylie Jenner.&nbsp;On Friday, an account tracking Taylor Swift&#8217;s jet was also suspended.



All of the accounts were maintained by Jack Sweeney, a college student who gained some public notoriety when Musk took over <a href="https://fortune.com/company/twitter/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> in 2022 and banned the same kind of jet tracker accounts, including the one Sweeney had <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-private-jet-twitter-account-suspended-free-speech-jack-sweeney/">tracking Musk’s own jet</a>. Sweeney eventually moved much of his jet tracking activity to Threads after the dispute with Musk.



Posting to <a href="https://www.threads.net/@jacksweeney/post/DBZxLVvPFmA?xmt=AQGz3wRkLkCXL0bB934661i2ZNHBn4wNBzyXAVc7-hXDZw">Threads from his personal account</a>, Sweeney said that all of the jet tracker accounts he maintained on the Meta platform were suspended over the past few days, save for two: one following the jet used by former President Donald Trump and one following the jet used by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.



“Quite strange,” Sweeney added. Not long after, the Trump and DeSantis jet accounts were also suspended.



A spokesman for Meta confirmed late Monday night that all of the accounts were removed: “Given the risk of physical harm to individuals, and in keeping with the independent Oversight Board’s recommendation, we’ve disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy.” The spokesman pointed to a <a href="https://www.oversightboard.com/decision/pao-2021-01/">2021 decision</a> from the Oversight Board, which Meta operates, covering the &#8220;sharing of private residential information.&#8221; The advisory decision indeed found that the sharing of private addresses or photos of residences, while they may be publicly accessible, is a violation of privacy. It makes no mention of flight path tracking.



Although all of the private jet data displayed in Sweeney’s Threads accounts is publicly available and maintained by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the sharing of the information over social media has raised the ire of many of the celebrity jet owners, who complain that it infringes on their privacy. 



Musk and Swift, although opposed to each other politically, have both <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-threatens-legal-action-against-elonjet-founder/">threatened Sweeney with lawsuits</a>, referring to the jet accounts as “assassination coordinates” (Musk) and “stalking and harassing behavior” (Swift).



Sweeney’s accounts do not show exactly where the planes or their occupants travel. Neither Musk nor Swift have taken formal legal action against him.



In a text message with Fortune, Sweeney said he had received &#8220;zero&#8221; explanation or opportunity to appeal. &#8220;If I log in it&#8217;s just black.&#8221;



Are you a Meta employee or someone with insight or a tip to share? Contact Kali Hays securely through&nbsp;<a href="https://signal.org/download/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Signal</a>&nbsp;at +1-949-280-0267 or at kali.hays@fortune.com.</div>

Jack Sweeney said all the Meta jet tracking accounts were suspended in recent days, save for two: one following the jet used by former president Donald Trump and one following the jet used by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Meta’s Threads suspends accounts showing private jet travel of billionaires like owner Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Taylor Swift 

Photo of Mark Zuckerberg walking through an airport

Did your workplace make our list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For?
<a href="https://fortune.com/ranking/best-companies/?&itm_source=fortune&itm_medium=article_tout&itm_campaign=AprMayMag">Explore this year's list.</a>

P-Reported

Tech

Lifestyle

Politics

Success

Meta’s Threads suspends accounts showing private jet travel of billionaires like owner Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Taylor Swift  | Fortune

Allie Garfinkle

Indeed CEO Chris Hyams says AI won’t steal your job, but it will definitely change it

/2025/05/19/indeed-ceo-chris-hyams-ai-job-openai/

Sydney Lake

Google CEO Sundar Pichai says there won’t be just one winner in the AI race

/2025/05/19/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-winner-ai-race/

Emma Burleigh

Co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei

Anthropic issues ironic warning to job applicants—don’t use AI when applying to our roles

/2025/05/19/ai-company-anthropic-chatbots-banned-hiring-job-applicants-communication/

Michelle Chapman

The Associated Press

Regeneron is buying 23andMe out of bankruptcy for $256 million

/article/regeneron-23andme-bankruptcy-256-million/

Beatrice Nolan

Parent groups are hosting fairs that showcase phones with limited features to try and keep children away from smartphones

/2025/05/19/parents-alternative-device-fairs-showcase-phones-limited-features-children-smartphones/

Leo Schwartz

Meet your startup’s next recruiter: Your venture capital firm

/2025/05/19/goanna-capital-recruiter-venture-capital-tech-startup/

This Gen Xer charges $38 an hour to wait in line—including for the Diddy trial and sample sales. Now he’s made a business empire out of standing around all day

https://fortune.com/2025/05/18/gen-x-entrepreneur-line-sitting-business-nyc-diddy-trial-sample-sale/?itm_source=parsely-api

Sara Braun

Some degrees don't guarantee a return on investment: These are the 10 worst-paying college majors

https://fortune.com/2025/05/19/some-degrees-really-are-a-waste-of-time-and-money-these-are-the-10-worst-paying-college-majors/?itm_source=parsely-api

Delta CEO says air traffic control systems are so outdated that some commercial flight routes were faster in the 1950s than they are today

https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/delta-ceo-air-traffic-control-1950s/?itm_source=parsely-api

Preston Fore

Millionaire music icon Usher says degrees still matter—but that the piece of paper won’t actually give Gen Z ‘power’

https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/multimillionaire-music-icon-usher-gen-z-advice-degrees-important-but-show-up/?itm_source=parsely-api

Orianna Rosa Royle

Gen Z are increasingly becoming NEETs by choice—not in employment, education, or training

https://fortune.com/article/gen-z-are-increasingly-becoming-neets/?itm_source=parsely-api

Stuart Dyos

'Doubt and hesitation' are ripping through the housing market: 'People are starting their home search, then backing out'

https://fortune.com/article/housing-market-buyers-backing-out-mortgage-prices/?itm_source=parsely-api