Pop star Taylor Swift became embroiled in a row this week with Florida college student Jack Sweeney, who has been posting flight path information for the singer's private jet.
Swift's jet usage has been criticized for years. A 2022 report found that her extensive use of a jet at the time made her the biggest celebrity polluter of the year. Over the years, Sweeney has kept track of the takeoffs and landings of planes and helicopters that hundreds of billionaires, politicians and other public figures own. Now, Swift's lawyers have sent Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter.
The singer's fans have attacked Sweeney on social media, with one posting a picture of the student on a jet, implying that he too has flown on a private plane.
The Claim
A post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday showed a photo of Sweeney on what looked like a private jet. User @satoraurgojo wrote alongside it: "Is this him?"
User @ApolloTaken17 posted in response: "This is SUCH good evidence for Taylor's side of things and shows Jack Sweeney does not genuinely care about carbon emissions. (I hope her legal team has this).
1. He wouldn't use a jet himself if he was consistent.
2. He stopped tracking Mark Cuban's jet because he is a Cuban fan."
The Facts
The cease-and-desist warning from Swift's lawyers is not the first spat between Sweeney and a high-profile public figure. In late 2022, he made headlines over a quarrel with Elon Musk for tracking the billionaire's private jet. Musk subsequently banned Sweeney's ElonJet account on X.
A photo of Sweeney using a jet could undermine his work highlighting the polluting habits of celebrities and world leaders—if it's proved he has flown privately. But this photo alone is not evidence that Sweeney has flown in a private jet.
Sweeney responded to one of the comments on X, saying that it was taken at a National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) conference.
"I never have flown on a private jet," he wrote. "That was at NBAA. I went inside it while it was on the ground."
Responding to another claim that he had a private jet, Sweeney wrote: "I don't and I've never flown on one. These pictures are from NBAA BACE where I checked out the jets on the ground. Part of being a journalist is understanding the industry from the ins and outs."
Newsweek has been able to independently corroborate Sweeney's claim. In another photo that Sweeney uses as his LinkedIn profile picture, he can be seen standing on the stairs of a private jet and wearing the same outfit from the photo on X, with a warehouse building or a hangar with a green roof in the background.
That hangar can be seen in aerial footage from the 2022 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, which exhibited dozens of private jets. Sweeney wrote on LinkedIn that he was attending this event.
In the aerial footage, the aircraft is parked in the same direction, relative to the warehouse, as seen in the photo of Sweeney on LinkedIn.
Another photo taken at the conference shows what looks like the aircraft next to an exhibitor flag for "Guardian Jet." The aircraft's location in this photo corresponds with the aerial shot and the location of Guardian Jet's exhibitor space at the 2022 conference.
In an Aircraft Display list for the event, which confirms Guardian Jet's space, one of its aircraft was a Gulfstream G550. The same or similar model seen in Sweeney's photos is currently for sale from Guardian Jet. The interior of the G550 is also similar to the photo of Sweeney shared on X, although similar cabin spaces can be found in other Gulfstream planes that were also exhibited at the conference.
The G550 was grounded for exhibition at the conference, and there appears to be no other convincing evidence that the photo of him inside the aircraft is from a Gulfstream in flight.
In a statement, Jack Sweeney told Newsweek "The one of me on the stairs is from a charter operator at NBAA aircraft (N667P, G550)."
"The one in the jet, it's one of the new Gulfstreams, Gulfstream the corporation actually had on display, it was either a 500,550,600,650,or 700 I don't recall.
"But I know it was in the Gulfstream area. Again never flown private, all on ground."
Swift's lawyers have suggested that Sweeney's social media accounts are aiding her stalkers and threatening her safety, The Washington Post reported.
If Sweeney doesn't stop tracking her flights, the lawyers have threatened to take legal action. They said that Swift and her family have suffered "direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress," as a result of his jet tracker account.
The Ruling
Misleading Material
The photo of Sweeney on a jet is not in flight. It was taken at a 2022 aviation conference in Florida. The aircraft, thought to be a Gulfstream G550, was grounded for exhibition alongside dozens of other aircraft.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Update 02/13/2024, 12:29 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Jack Sweeney.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
