Stephen King’s post mocking Elon Musk on the social media platform has gone viral, drawing a response from the billionaire business mogul.
The Tesla CEO officially acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and introduced a range of changes, including changing the platform’s name to X.
Months before the name and logo change, Musk said he wanted to build an “all-purpose app” modeled after the Chinese app WeChat that would allow users to send messages, perform banking, pay bills and hail cabs.
Author King, a frequent critic of Musk, recently signaled his opposition to the name change in response to a video posted by the entrepreneur.
From left: Elon Musk, pictured in Cannes, France, on June 19, 2024, and Stephen King, pictured in New York on November 11, 2014. The Tesla CEO responded to the author’s recent comments. From left: Elon Musk, pictured in Cannes, France, on June 19, 2024, and Stephen King, pictured in New York on November 11, 2014. The Tesla CEO responded to the author’s recent comments on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Details Marc Piasecki/Getty Images;/John Lamparski/WireImage
King reposted a video Musk shared with X, which showed what appeared to be a computer-generated image of a giant X structure towering over the skyscrapers of a cityscape. Musk posted the video on July 18 without comment.
“Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter,” King, a writer for It magazine, wrote at the time. As of publication, the post had been viewed more than 11 million times.
King reiterated his sentiments on Wednesday, returning to Twitter and sharing another post that read, “Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Sorry Elon. You bought it. You’re stuck with it.”
Twitter, Twitter, Twitter.
Sorry, Elon.
I bought it.
You are bound to it.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 24, 2024
The post was viewed more than 1.1 million times within a few hours and caught the attention of Musk, who responded by saying, “Using their deadnames hurts our feelings.”
The term “deadname” is often used to refer to a name that a transgender person was given at birth but no longer wishes to be called by that name.
It hurts our feelings when you say our dead names 😢
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2024
This isn’t the first time King has spoken out about a platform’s name. In November, he wrote about X, “Fuck this X.” He ended the post with the hashtag “#ChangeItBack.” Musk replied to the post with “𝕏𝕏” and a kissing face emoji.
In February of this year, King reiterated his dislike for X’s rebranding.
“Dear Elon. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. Fuck you, putting your brand on everything. Just because you buy it doesn’t mean you own it,” King said. Post to X.
In November 2022, just weeks after Musk officially acquired X, King expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the microblogging platform.
“I think Elon Musk is a visionary,” King wrote. “He’s almost singlehandedly changed the way Americans think about cars. I own a Tesla and love it. That said, he’s not great on Twitter at all. He seems to make things up haphazardly.”
“Suggestions are welcome, mister. [King]Musk responded by substituting a crown emoji for King’s last name.
Another user tweeted that Musk should invite King to X’s headquarters in San Francisco to “talk face to face,” to which Musk simply replied, “You’re invited!”
Musk has made multiple comments about himself and X as a whole in response to King’s posts about X. “I think I liked Twitter better before Musk took over. It was less contentious and more fun,” the poster wrote a few days after the CEO took over at X.
The shop owner jokingly replied with a ghost emoji: “I’m still a fan of yours [to be honest]” Musk said in a subsequent post. King reportedly did not respond, and Musk later deleted the comment.
In November 2022, Musk reiterated his respect for King in a post on X, saying the renowned author is “one of the most creative people on the planet. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I actually want to listen to what he has to say.”
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