By On 23 October, Twitter locked the billionaire, Elon Musk’s account. The Space X and Tesla founder, who is known to be an active user of Twitter, was merely joking when he made the tongue-in-cheek quip in which he asked a follower if they would like to buy bitcoin.
Twitter just didn’t get it
Twitter didn’t comprehend Musk’s frivolous Tweet and took unprecedented action by locking his account. This was, according to Musk’s Tweet yesterday, since “Twitter thought I got hacked & locked my account haha”. Musk’s followers have found the humour in the situation as they continue tweeting their thoughts.
The Milieu
According to a CCN report, a follower asked Musk whether Tesla accounts would soon begin utilising 2-factor authentication for added security. The follower was referring to the 2-factor authentication security protocol commonly deployed by crypto trading platforms such as Coinbase and Circle. However, Twitter moderators were apparently unable to make the connection or see the humour in the situation.
Consequently, pending the Twitter investigation, his account was temporarily locked on suspicion of being hacked. Once concluded, Twitter then unlocked Musk’s account a few hours later.
Elon Musk in Hot Water with controversial Tweets
Musk has landed himself in hot water a few times over the last few months following a series of controversies linked to his activity on Twitter. He declared in a Tweet that he could take Tesla private for $420 a share, which eventually landed him in trouble with the SEC. The SEC fined Musk $20 million as well as issued an order for him to step aside as Tesla chairman, for a minimum of three years.
In October Musk made a cheeky comment, following the settlement of his case with the SEC, in which he also took a dig at the agency, whereby he described it as the “Short-seller Enrichment Commission”.
According to various reports, it was estimated that his tweet that initially drew the SEC’s attention eventually led Tesla to a share price loss of more than 10 percent within a day. Despite this, Musk has an excess of 20 million followers who actively engage with him on Twitter. He predominantly has millennial followers, which makes him one of the most influential tech personalities on social media.
Musk also ended up in a legal controversy in the famous war of words that he had with one of the divers which were involved in the Thai cave rescue. He described the diver as being a paedophile, which led the diver to take legal action against Musk.
Multiple people such as fellow billionaire Ricard Branson and other Tesla investors have advised Musk to halt his tweeting. This is primarily due to concerns that his somewhat unpredictable actions on Twitter may have a significant, negative impact on investment.
Twitter is understandably taking precautions to mitigate the risk of his account being used as a megaphone by cybercriminals to promote questionable investments or crypto giveaway scams.
In May it was reported by the CCN that criminals successfully hijacked the Vertcoin ICO’s twitter account. They were promoting a fraudulent crypto giveaway scheme. Since then, several celebrities have been targeted either by hijackers or by botnets who use account cloning practices.
What are your thoughts on Musk’s Twitter behaviour? Do the likes of Richard Branson and others have a genuine cause for concern? Don’t hesitate to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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