Student Jack Sweeney created the Twitter bot, which tracks Musk’s Gulfstream private jet and posts real-time updates of its location. Since discovering the Twitter bot, Musk has pleaded with Sweeney to delete it: “Can you take this down? It is a security risk,” Musk said.
In a direct message to Sweeney, Musk also said, “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase.”
Following an exchange of messages, which Sweeney made public, Musk offered the student a deal: “How about $5k for this account and generally helping make it harder for crazy people to track me?”
“Any chance to up that to $50K?” Sweeney responded. “It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car, maybe even a [Tesla] Model 3.”
After consideration, Musk rejected Sweeney’s offer, saying “it doesn’t feel right to pay to shut this down.”
Sweeney, who claims to be a fan of Musk’s, has since offered to delete the account in exchange for an internship alongside the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. However, the billionaire is yet to respond to the offer.
