PewDiePie/YouTube
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk changed his name on Twitter to "Elon Tusk" Tuesday night.
- It’s the latest in a strange social media saga for the billionaire this week, after the SEC accused him of misleading investors in a tweet last week.
- The billionaire is a noted fan of memes, having hosted a YouTube "meme review" show last week.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s strange week on Twitter took another turn Tuesday night.
Shortly after tweeting that "some Tesla news" would be announced at 2 pm Pacific on Thursday, the billionaire changed his name to "Elon Tusk" and added an elephant emoji to the end.
Musk began his week with an accusation from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday evening that he had violated his $20 million agreement to be monitored by a designated securities lawyer on tweets that could affect Tesla’s stock price.
The stock market regulator alleges Musk potentially misled investors last week when he tweeted that Tesla would produce 500,000 vehicles this year. He later corrected himself and said it would make only about 400,000.
"SEC forgot to read Tesla earnings transcript, which clearly states 350k to 500k," he tweeted. "How embarrassing …"
That response, however, lived on Musk’s Twitter timeline next to memes about Musk’s name that could have sparked the rhyming name change.
Elon Tusk memes were already popular on sites like Reddit, where members of the fandom Musk has amassed were already coming up with their own pun versions of his name. Elon Tusk rose in popularity roughly a week ago, next to classics like "Elongated Muskrat."
It’s also possibly a reference to the scam cryptocurrency accounts that would try to emulate Musk’s verified account — one of which went by the name Elon Tusk — shilling coins to those fooled by the name. Eventually, it prompted a tweet from Musk himself.
Last week, Elon Musk hosted the latest episode of ‘Meme Review’ with the mega-popular YouTuber PewDiePie. You can read all the highlights here.
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See Also:
- The SEC’s claim that Elon Musk is in contempt of court is highly unusual, a former SEC lawyer says
- A judge just set a deadline for Elon Musk to defend himself against the SEC’s claims that he is in contempt of court
- Elon Musk says ‘something is broken’ at the SEC after the agency asked a judge to hold him in contempt of court
Source: Business Insider – grapier@businessinsider.com (Graham Rapier)