Tesla CEO Elon Musk "deleted" his Twitter account ... for a few hours anyway.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk made news on Twitter last night; however, for once instead of the evoking much hand-wringing, his social media exploits were all in good fun.
A bit after midnight, Musk announced he’d closed his Twitter account. However, he simply elected to change his Twitter handle to Daddy DotCom instead. However, the change didn’t last as he’d reverted back to his regular name, Elon Musk, several hours later.
It’s not the first time, Musk’s has changed things up on his Twitter account. In February, Musk briefly changed his display name to “Elon Tusk” and added an elephant tag to his account. This time the swap came after a dustup over his use of artwork and not crediting the artist on his Twitter feed.
His rationale for not crediting the artist, Meli Magali in this case, is that “no one should be credited with anything ever.” He declined to elaborate on why and then confused followers even more by posting: “Always credit everyone.”
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Tesla's Elon Musk was Daddy DotCom, at least for a little while last night.
Magali got word about the issue, fans informing her about and rushing to her defense on Musk’s feed. “Elon, you’re not cool for not crediting me,” she tweeted at Musk.
Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time Musk has been at the center of an artwork-related dispute on the internet. In 2017, Musk tweeted a photo of a mug that featured a unicorn farting to power an electric car, according to TheDrive.com.
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The exposure led to a run of sales on the mug, but Tesla used similar artwork in its in-car operating system. This led to speculation about the possibility of the artist suing the company for compensation. Musk said that the artist could do that, but it would be “kinda lame.” The artist hired an attorney to and the dispute was resolved.