As a world of Swifites prepares to track the weekend journey of pop empress Taylor Swift from Japan to Las Vegas, her attorneys are telling a college student who tracks her flights to knock it off.
Swift’s Eras Tour has her in Japan, where she will perform Saturday night before jetting across the Pacific Ocean to get to the Super Bowl to star in innumerable camera shots while on the field below, boyfriend Travis Kelce and the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs will play in the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers.
World attention on the flight is such that the Japanese Embassy took to X to assure all those in distress that although the flight takes 12 hours, the 17-hour time difference should make getting there a breeze.
Could NORAD track Taylor Swift traveling from Tokyo to the Super Bowl like they do for Santa?
Asking for a friend. pic.twitter.com/xHIE1YMYpC
— Democracy Over Autocracy! NOTHING MORE!! (@hduverge) February 2, 2024
Another historic moment for Ms. @taylorswift13! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/jeZxOS72kM
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) February 3, 2024
But to Swift and her attorneys, the routine flight tracking that’s done by a Florida college student crosses a line.
Swift’s attorneys have threatened to sue Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, if he keeps posting the polluting paths of Swift’s private jets, according to The Washington Post.
Should private flight information be kept private?
On Swift’s behalf, the Washington law firm Venable penned a cease-and-desist missive in December, saying Swift would “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if Sweeney did not stop his “stalking and harassing behavior.”
Posting information that is publicly available from the Federal Aviation Administration through the help of volunteers causes “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress” to Swift and her family, the letter said.
Attorney Katie Wright Morrone said knowing that the world knows where one of the most famous celebrities is flying causes a “constant state of fear for her personal safety.”
“While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death matter for our Client,” Morrone wrote, adding that there is “no legitimate interest in or public need for this information, other than to stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control.”
When asked for details, Tree Paine, a representative of Swift, said, “We cannot comment on any ongoing police investigation but can confirm the timing of stalkers suggests a connection. His posts tell you exactly when and where she would be.”
Sweeney, 21, dismissed the letter as a scare tactic.
“This information is already out there,” he said. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”
He noted that the flight information is incomplete and that much of her travel is already public through her concert schedule.
Your daily reminder that Taylor Swift and her private jet is the number 1 polluting celebrity https://t.co/0W140ooAPz pic.twitter.com/lKeuylVC1c
— Neonblack (@Neonblack789) January 28, 2024
Swift’s high-flying ways have drawn criticism. In 2022, she was crowned the worst celebrity CO2 offender by Yard, a U.K.-based data analysis agency.
Private jets are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial airplanes, according to the Sierra Club.
In a 2020 Variety interview, Swift decried climate change as one of the “horrific situations” facing young people, along with “gun violence,” “student loans,” the potential for war, and “trying to figure out how to start their lives and how to pay their bills.”
Paine said in response to criticism about the giant-sized carbon footprint of the travel that Swift bought more than double the “carbon credits” to offset the travel that would be undertaken for her current tour, the Post reported.
