Taylor Swift is winning in basically all areas of life, becoming the most influential person in the world and one of the most beloved artists in modern history. Whatever she does rapidly becomes trending on social media, including her flying habits.
In the past year, Swift’s travel plans have become of high interest among her followers, mainly after starting a relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce during the first leg of the Eras Tour. The singer would take constant flights between her shows to support her boyfriend, causing a huge debate on social media.
Only this week, Taylor has scheduled a great number of flights, including her attendance at the Grammy Awards last weekend, her Tokyo shows that started today, and the big question if she will be able to travel back from Japan to attend the Super Bowl this Sunday to see Kelce. After the match, she has to fly to Australia to continue with her tour. So, yes, those are a lot of private flights.
Harassment or Moral Exposure?
While the love story of Taylor doing everything to be next to her boo has many fans swooning; however, others like Jack Sweeney, a college student from Florida, have questioned how these romantic gestures (among the habits of other celebrities) reverberate in the planet with the carbon emissions they generate.
With his social media profiles, Sweeney logs the takeoffs and landings of private planes and helicopters owned by celebrities, politicians, and billionaires, always estimating the carbon emissions they generate. He uses data (available on the Federal Aviation Administration) and tracks the routes through each aircraft’s broadcast. So, basically, he’s not doing anything illegal per se.
Naturally, these celebrities and public figures aren’t happy with Jack Sweney’s work, and many have tried to silence him, Taylor Swift, being the last one to attempt it. And we get it, this is probably the only negative thing debated about her image. According to Sweeney, last December, he received a cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s lawyers threatening legal action against him.
Her team claims he is portraying “stalking and harassing behavior” towards the singer. As mentioned, this isn’t Sweeney’s first legal rodeo. In 2022, Elon Musk banned him, claiming he was basically sharing “assassination coordinates” endangering him. However, Sweeney’s accounts don’t focus on what these people are doing after their aircraft lands.
Taylor Swift’s lawyers added that this student is causing the singer and her family “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress.” Just last month, a man was arrested three times after trying to trespass into Taylor’s apartment in New York; but does Sweeney’s information actually endanger her? As mentioned, not really; he only shares flight data, whatever they go afterward is still a secret.
Moreover, Jack Sweeney usually shares these updates with a 24-hour delay, and most of them are actually known to the public. Now, although some of his accounts on Meta and X (Twitter) have been banned, he still carries out his work on platforms like Mastodon and Telegram because he thinks it is important to see how the impact these private flights have on the planet.
Finally, Sweeney has been working with a team of attorneys who specialize in First Amendment and Internet Speech Issues. Jame Slater, one of his lawyers, has responded that Swift’s team doesn’t have any legal claim since this information doesn’t pose a threat to the singer and her safety. “This isn’t about putting a GPS tracker on someone and invading their privacy. It’s using public information to track the jet of a public figure. This is their means to try to quash a PR issue and bully my client to have the bad coverage die down.”
