Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/06/taylor-swift-threatens-to-sue-social-media-account-posting-the-public-information-about-where-her-private-jet-is.html
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I thought she was more media savvy than that. It may be that this was an overzealous assistant, manager, or lawyer looking to justify their existence on her payroll.
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Or she’s gotten even more death threats than usual because the RWNJ are freaking out. I can totally see someone threatening to shoot down the jet when she’s flying in to attend the Superbowl.
Maybe both. A general request to come down hard on harassers that got extended to the plane data. It is hard to believe someone so media savvy, or who at least hires people very media savvy, wouldn’t have known how much attention Elon doing the same thing created
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does she also plan to sue the FAA for making the information public in the first place? the social media account is just making it easier to read
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Why, because Streisand effect?
She sued back in December, and we’re just now hearing about it, so maybe St. Barbra shouldn’t be summoned in this case.
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Good point. There’s a real security issue at the moment that may have overridden normal media/image management.
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That seems highly likely.
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It’s also possible that she isn’t even aware of this, or the massive team managing her image isn’t aware of this, as I’m sure she likely doesn’t make daily decisions like this on what happens.
All the ultra rich people have squads of people around them making decisions on their behalf all the time.
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Streisand-effect works in the sky?!?
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It’s amazing how they are losing their shit over NOTHING. She told people to register to vote in 2018 because she didn’t like Marsha Blackburn in the state she lives in. And that’s it.
They are trying to make the biggest music star living into a straw man to fight.
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We’re probably one incident from the FAA declaring that information secret and only available to a limited, licensed, and vetted audience. As it stands, if she really doesn’t like it, there’s an FAA form to fill out for LADD, Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed, which prevents this data from being transmitted to the public:
- FAA Source: Aircraft data is limited to FAA use only. No FAA flight data will be available to external vendors. If you are considering limiting data at FAA Source, FAA flight data on your aircraft will not be available to internet web sites.
Now, this is only available for non-commercial aircraft, but if she’s been getting threats against her aircraft, it would seem to be an open-and-shut request. If someone is more familiar with the process and how the FAA handles such requests, please chime in, I’m no expert.
But, if our nascent nasty civil war goes down a darker path and planes start getting shot at, or worse crash due to this information being used to attack planes, I could easily see the FAA declaring that information to no longer be available to the public, but only to those with a specific need (ATC, the big carriers, military?), and then limited to what they need to know.
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It really boggles the mind how the right wing media and politicians have seized on the misogyny of their audience to stoke the flames. They just keep digging and I sincerely wish to see all their election hopes in that grave soon.
I hope Taylor Swift is able to insulate herself from most of the vitriol and stays safe.
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“The location of airplanes is public information provided by the government, an inevitable result of the safety considerations in play, the outside being public, and so on.”
I have to wonder what exactly those safety concerns are? Safe air travel was established before the Internet made all of these flights available for free to everyone. And what about planes/flights that aren’t required to file a plan with the FAA?
I don’t feel like this information should be public. I’m guessing the Swift camp is equally as worried about emission criticism and personal safety, but a win for personal freedom would be nice too.
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Celebrity lawyers can certainly get ahead of their clients, but often have standing orders about things. A few years back Metallica’s lawyer sent a cease-and-desist to a cover band – Metallica fired their lawyers over it. Now, I don’t know if that was because the lawyer went beyond their authority or not – Metallica is certainly on the litigious side as far as bands go – but they understood that that at least looked bad.
Taylor Swift is so insanely good at branding, though. This seems a misstep. That said, I don’t know why she doesn’t just charter jets to avoid this.
Metallica apologise for cease and desist letter sent to tribute act | Metallica | The Guardian.
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I do like how MAGA has gotten so tied up in this stupidity that, somehow, their preferred outcome has become a win by San Francisco.
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It’s actually jets. Taylor Swift has two jets.
[Posting anew since I did not want to reply to @vonbobo, but to the thread.]
EDIT: Apparently not true anymore, thanks @chicagobee !
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It really is remarkably self-defeating.
As is attacking Swift, AND the Swifties. Way to shoot themselves in the other foot by further alienating the youth (and let’s face it, a demographic that’s also more potentially republican because it’s so predominantly white).
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The FAA does two separate things:
- Mandates that all aircraft broadcast flight information.
- Collects that information and makes it available on their site.
The FAA can and does filter out some aircraft, as do the major pay sites. For example, Tom Cruise:
https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N808T
However, it’s extremely easy to collect the raw data from a network of simple receivers (e.g. RPi/SDR), run by volunteers, and make the unfiltered data available.
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That was my assumption too.
It will be interesting to see how she handles it.
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Whatever it is I hope she mentions MAGAt death threats. Maybe she can make more people aware of the danger that the right-wing cult poses to all of us.
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