Talk about Swift’s use of C02-spewing private jets began to percolate on social media in recent weeks, especially after she began traveling to see new boyfriend Travis Kelce’s NFL games.
In threatening legal action against a Florida college student whose social media accounts track her private-plane flights, Taylor Swift has refocused attention on reports that she’s one of the celebrity world’s biggest polluters of carbon dioxide — just as she’s expected to fly 12 hours in a private plane from Tokyo this weekend to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play in the Super Bowl Sunday.
Jack Sweeney, a University of Central Florida junior, went public Tuesday with cease-and-desist letters sent from Swift’s attorney. In one letter, the attorney wrote that the pop megastar will “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if he did not stop his social media posts that the attorney said constituted “stalking and harassing behavior,” the Washington Post reported.
Sweeney has run accounts that post information about the takeoffs and landings of jet planes and helicopters owned by celebrities, billionaires, politicians, Russian oligarchs and other public figures, the Washington Post reported. His posts also have shared estimates of the carbon dioxide that these aircraft are emitting into the environment. The accounts use publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration, while volunteer hobbyists track the aircraft via the signals they broadcast, the Post also said.
As Sweeney told The Post, he sees the letters as an attempt to stop him from sharing public information. He noted that the first letter was sent in December, at a time when Swift faced growing criticism over her flights’ environmental impact, while she was on the road for her Eras Tour — and while she was jetting back and forth across the United States to see Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, play in NFL games. “This information is already out there,” Sweeny told the Post. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”
Sweeney also said: “I think it’s important to note that nowhere do I intend for harm. I actually think Swift has some good songs.” However, he emphasized, “I believe in transparency and public information.”
Sweeney’s accounts previously sparked debate about free speech and the public’s right to certain information when X, formerly Twitter, banned the 21-year-old for sharing information about the private-plane flights of Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, the Post said. Musk accused Sweeney of publishing his “assassination coordinates.”
The letter from Swift’s attorney, Katie Wright Morrone, alleged that Sweeney’s accounts had caused Swift and her family “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress,” as well as heightened her “constant state of fear for her personal safety.”
