In what appears to be the latest and most bizarre move so far, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla – or someone acting on his behalf or pretending to be him – has tweeted that he has “deleted his Twitter account.”
He didn’t apparently stop at that, also changing his Twitter handle to “DaddyDotCom.” The latter notably rings a bell with many, as there is a famed portal called daddy.com, which provides nearl minted or expecting fathers with parenting tips “you need to know.”
He also changed his profile photo, ditching the image of an astronaut sitting on a car in favour of a pitch-black image.
Despite most of us being no stranger to the SpaceX boss’ social media antics, the bizarre turn of events couldn’t help but raise eyebrows online, with the entrepreneur’s account being followed by a whopping 27 million people:
“Whaaat? We’ve just started,” one Twitter user posted, while another wrote as if he were Musk himself:
“Luckily I, Elon Musk, have this second account which is definitely run by me.” Or, is he?
Luckily I, Elon Musk, have this second account which is definitely run by me
— Mars (@4thFromOurStar) 17 июня 2019 г.
….with the comment prompting another one to suggest “Elon has been in love with himself this whole time.”
o.o so you've been in love with yourself this whole time? D:
— Michell LeAnn (@MichellBasler) 17 июня 2019 г.
Other Twitter users, meanwhile, expressed their endorsement over the deletion…
This tweet deserves so much more love
— Amanda Fay (@amandanfay) 17 июня 2019 г.
Please step away from the keyboard pic.twitter.com/floH8UJBHo
— Sofiaan Fraval (@Sofiaan) 17 июня 2019 г.
— Pye Waw (@pyewaw) 17 июня 2019 г.
...while many more asked him “please not to” deprive them of Musk’s “gems:”
This Is Us when You tweet! Hahaha pic.twitter.com/oUYWzePYvo
— Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo (@JaneidyEve) 17 июня 2019 г.
No please no!
— 𝕄𝕚𝕤𝕤 𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕜𝕜𝕒 🎀 (@FlirtyNikka) 17 июня 2019 г.
I can't live without these gems. pic.twitter.com/PkN9xguUCX
One even suggested Musk is in no need of a parody account:
Not sure why you'd need a parody account for Elon
— Chintan Trivedi (@deepgamingai) 17 июня 2019 г.
Never do that Mr.Elon , the only reason why we are on Twitter is you..😔 pic.twitter.com/pNfO0kC4zE
— Suravy G. (@blaugrana_su) 17 июня 2019 г.
Memes naturally also came in torrents:
Midlife crisis . com pic.twitter.com/FpUNXlB8Ok
— AsukaStaysBestWaifu🇦🇹 (@DerReichsapfel_) 17 июня 2019 г.
Have more important things to do? pic.twitter.com/Bud0ATsJHn
— Marstronauts (@marstronauts) 17 июня 2019 г.
Daddy dotCom ? pic.twitter.com/Df9PcHkowj
— neamet (@neamett) 17 июня 2019 г.
The latest controversy occurred as he shared a piece of art on his account without crediting the creator, prompting a storm online. When asked to do so, he flat out refused and argued that crediting an artist on Twitter equates to destroying the medium. Musk proceeded to delete the entire conversation, but not before a few screenshots were captured.
Musk hasn’t been merely baffling his subscriber base, but also the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has called him to task over a series tweets that were found to be severely affecting Tesla’s stock prices.
Musk was sued by the SEC in 2018 after falsely claiming he had secured funding for a buyout of EV auto-maker company Tesla, leading to a settlement whereby Musk was required to receive legal preapproval for tweets that could affect Tesla’s share price, as well as step down from his CEO position.
