College Student Tracking Taylor Swift's Jet Sends Legal Response to Her Cease and Desist Notice

Jack Sweeney, a Florida college student who maintains social media accounts that track the private jet flights of Taylor Swift and other celebrities, had been threatened with legal action by Swift's attorneys a week back. Sweeney, in return, has taken legal steps against the complaint filed by the Lover hitmaker's team. The letter was written by Sweeney's lawyers in response to one that Swift's attorney, Katie Wright Morrone, had sent him in December. In that letter, the Blank Space songstress threatened that if he did not cease disclosing her jet's movements, she would 'have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies available to her.' The 21-year-old posted the response on X, referring to Swift's famous lyrics, “Look What You Made Me Do.” 

As per The NY Post, the University of Central Florida junior who managed the now-defunct Instagram account @taylorswiftjets, according to Venable LLP's Morrone, 'engaged in stalking and harassing behavior' by posting the star's personal plane movements in real-time on social media. Swift, 34, has been dealing with stalkers since she was a teenager. "This conduct poses an imminent threat to the safety and wellbeing of our Client and must stop," it was written in the first letter, stressing that it was a 'life-or-death matter.'

However, with rapid retaliation, Sweeney's lawyer stated that Morrone had failed to cite any evidence against their client, who uses his 'protected speech' and distributes data from the Federal Aviation Administration that is accessible to the public. 

“Put simply, there is nothing unlawful about [Sweeney’s] use of publicly accessible information to track private jets, including those used by public figures like Taylor Swift,” attorney James Slater of Slater Legal PLLC stated in the official letter. “The @taylorswiftjets account is engaged in protected speech that does not violate any of Ms. Swift’s legal rights,” he said before adding, “Your letter makes that clear by failing to identify any legal claim.”

The only legal allegation made by Morrone was that of a stalker; however, even in that case, the statute defines a stalker as someone who poses a 'credible threat' to the victim. Sweeney, in the singer-songwriter's defense, has never done so. Additionally, Slater stated that the Wildest Dreams songstress' safety is not in danger due to the information revealing the whereabouts of private jets.

“We do not know why you believed the best claim against an individual in Florida and his company is a California statute, but that, combined with the absence of any credible legal claim, suggests a groundless effort to intimidate and censor our clients,” Slater concluded, according to Radar Online.

Despite the fact that Instagram shut down the @taylorswiftjets account due to rules violations, Sweeney keeps posting about the star's flying travel on his second account, Celeb Jets, where he also shares posts about other Hollywood elites' travels. A 2022 analysis that used Sweeney's accounts dubbed the Grammy winner the 'biggest celebrity [carbon dioxide] polluter' of the year. Her spokesperson defended the findings, saying that other people frequently borrowed Swift's jet.