On Friday, a 19-year-old famed for his Twitter account that tracks Elon Musk’s private jet was offered a free Tesla for three years to shut it down – but he declined.
Jack Sweeney earlier stated that he would accept a free Tesla from Musk to delete the account after rejecting a $5,000 offer from the Tesla CEO.
Scott Painter, CEO of car company Autonomy, promised Sweeney a subscription to a Tesla Model 3 if he deactivated Musk’s jet-tracking account on Twitter on Friday. According to the Wall Street Journal, the offer was for a three-year subscription.
“I told you I’m not interested in a subscription besides; there are numerous facts that suggest this is in conjunction with Elon,” Sweeney replied.
Sweeney addressed his decision in an interview, saying that “I’d like to get my own car. I don’t want to have to return it in three years.” “If I got an actual Tesla, then I would take it down.”
Sweeney’s jet-tracking account employs bots that scan publicly available air-traffic data. Sweeney stated in a statement that he turned down Musk’s $5,000 offer to deactivate the account because it wasn’t enough to replace the joy he receives from keeping it.
Musk remarked in his first communication with Musk, which took place over Twitter direct messaging in 2021 and was initially reported by Protocol: “Can you please take this down? It is a security risk.”
“Yes, I can, but it’ll cost you a Model 3; only joking unless?” Sweeney replied.
“How about $5k for this account and generally helping make it harder for crazy people to track me?” Musk responded.
“Sounds doable, account and all my help. Any chance to up that to $50K?” Sweeney said. He suggested college funding and advised the millionaire that the money might be used to purchase a Tesla Model 3.