Elon Musk's Twitter account not suspended after he dropped takeover deal
Last updated on: 13 July,2022 11:10 am
Elon Musk's Twitter account not suspended after he dropped takeover deal
(Reuters) - The Twitter account of Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not suspended after he announced he was pulling out of a $44 billion deal to take over the social media company.
Some social media users have been sharing screenshots purporting to show his account - under the handle @elonmusk - had been suspended (here).
One tweet had gathered more than 136,000 likes and 19,000 shares at the time of writing.
Other examples of the claim can be found (here), (here), (here) and (here).
Musk’s Twitter account, however, and remains active and viewable (twitter.com/elonmusk).
Archived versions of Musk’s account do not show it was suspended after he announced his move to end the deal to purchase the social media platform (here), (here), (here).
The misunderstanding appears to be linked to the typography used by the platform. While the handle used by Musk (@elonmusk) is not suspended, a different handle (@eIonmusk, where the lowercase ‘l’ has been replaced with an uppercase ‘i’) that looks the same, has been (twitter.com/eIonmusk).
In a filing on July 8, Musk’s lawyers said Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to the company’s business performance – and said this breached provisions of the merger agreement (here).
Twitter’s chairman, Bret Taylor, said via a Twitter post that the board planned to pursue legal action (here).
VERDICT
False. Billionaire Elon Musk’s verified Twitter handle was not suspended. Users shared a screenshot of a separate suspended account, where the lowercase ‘l’ was replaced with an uppercase ‘i’, making it appear identical to Musk’s Twitter handle.