A college student who was once suspended and subsequently banned from Twitter for posting the real-time location of Twitter owner Elon Musk is now tracking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Jack Sweeney, a 20-year-old student at the University of Central Florida, regularly posts the movements of politicians and celebrities, including former President Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian. He has also tracked Russian oligarchs, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He uses publicly available flight data and shares the location information with his followers on various social media outlets including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
On Monday, Sweeney posted his first tweet on a new account @DeSantisJet, sharing the movements of the state jet that DeSantis uses. The Republican governor is expected to announce a presidential bid and could officially enter a growing primary field as early as Wednesday.
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University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney is now sharing the flight location information of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Sweeney told The Associated Press that DeSantis is “just becoming someone that people want to know about.”
He also said he intends to track DeSantis flights on private aircraft once he is able to verify the aircraft.
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The college student was suspended from Twitter last year by Musk, who said the sharing of real-time location information violated the platform’s terms of service. The Twitter owner said it was also dangerous for himself and members of his family.
Jack Sweeney claimed an anonymous Twitter employee explained to him that his account was “visibility limited/restricted to a severe degree internally” on Dec. 2 (Getty Images)
Musk officially called the action “doxxing” and suspended journalists who shared links to Sweeney’s platforms with the location information.
“They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service,” Musk tweeted in Dec. 2022.
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“Accounts engaged in doxxing receive a temporary 7–day suspension,” he added in another tweet.
The accounts, including Sweeney’s, have been restored.
Sweeney now gets around the Twitter terms and conditions by providing a 24-hour delay in the flight information.
“A time delay on reporting location that doesn’t put people at serious risk of being killed is fine,” Musk said in Dec. 2022.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to join the 2024 Republican presidential primary on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
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DeSantis’ entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary this week comes just days after Sen. Tim Scott joined the race. Scott officially announced his bid on Monday.
DeSantis would also join the race as a frontrunner, as he is polling second behind Trump in most nationwide polls.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
