Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Florida teenager Jack Sweeney, 19, turned down an offer from Elon Musk of $5,000 to delete his Twitter account. Sweeney’s Twitter account was able to track Musk’s private jet, ElonJet.
ElonJet has more than 150,000 followers and uses a bot developed by Sweeney to monitor flights. The student has developed about a dozen other flight bot accounts that track the journeys of famous tech giants, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
“Can you take this down? It’s a security risk,” Musk told Sweeney in a direct message as quoted by CNN, Tuesday (1/2/2022).
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO ended up offering Sweeney $5,000 to help prevent him from tracking his flights. Sweeney retaliated instead by asking for US $ 50,000.
He admitted that he could use the money to go to college and possibly develop a Tesla (TSLA) Model 3.
Last chat on Wednesday, January 19 Musk said that it didn’t feel right to pay for this.
However, according to Sweeney, options other than remuneration such as internships would make it much easier.
Sweeney says he’s been a fan of SpaceX since the launch of the first Falcon Heavy in 2018. His father worked for the airline and fueled his interest in aviation.
“USD 5,000 is not enough for how much I get. It doesn’t replace anything, like the enjoyment factor,” he said.
Sweeney did offer Musk some technical advice and told the billionaire about a blocking program he could use against the flight tracking program.
“Looks like he took the suggestion,” said Sweeney
He also said that Musk is currently using a blocking program.
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