Description
Tesla boss and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has found himself a fitting moniker and it might be here to stay. On Thursday, Musk tweeted with a smiley emoji that he had changed his Twitter username to "Mr. Tweet," and now the microblogging site will no longer allow its owner to use his real name. He wrote: "Changed my name to Mr. Tweet, now Twitter won't let me change it." Later, a Twitter user revealed the inside joke about Musk's latest attempt at being goofy. According to Patrick McGee, a San Francisco-based tech journalist, Nicholas Porritt, the attorney representing investors who sued Musk over Tesla's stock price, accidentally called him "Mr. Tweet" at Monday's hearing. Apparently Musk came up with an "accurate description" and voila: we have a new nickname!
A group of shareholders has alleged that Musk manipulated Tesla's stock price when he tweeted in 2018 that he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420" per share. Musk, in his defense, accused Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's Private Investment Fund, of "backing down" after verbal assurances to back the deal.
Twitter saw a seismic shift in its app, policies, and verification program after the Musk acquisition. This is not the first time that Twitter has prevented users from changing their name. In 2022, American rapper Doja Cat's display name was set to "Christmas" and she begged Musk to help her change it.
"I don't want to be Christmas forever Elon Musk help me I made a mistake," the star tweeted. After Musk responded that he should now be able to go back to his old name, Doja Cat changed it to "fart."
Multimedia journalist at Hindustan Times. He covers news from India, the world, business and technology with an eye for human interest stories rooted in gender and culture. ...See details
