It's now harder to know where celebrities fly and their carbon emissions, with Meta shutting down instagram and Threads accounts dedicated to tracking private jets. TechCrunch reports. “Given the risk of physical harm to people, and in line with the recommendation of the independent Oversight Board, we have disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy,” Meta told the publication. The deleted accounts include those tracking the flights of Taylor Swift, Bill Gates and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg himself.
Jack Sweeney, a college student in his 20s who does the math, confirmed the news on his personal account. It is the latest in a series of reactions he has faced in the past. In late 2022, Elon Musk suspended Sweeney's @ElonJet account, which tracked Musk's flights, on x (then twitter). He soon created an account with the handle @ElonJetNextDay to post Musk's one-day delayed flights. Then, a year later, Taylor Swift's lawyers sent Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter saying, “While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will bring you wealth or fame, it is a life or… matter of death for our Client.”
In May, Sweeney's job became a little more difficult, when the Biden administration allowed anyone with a private plane to travel keep your registration data anonymous. However, Sweeney said advice and other research makes it still feasible.
