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TEXXR

Chronicles

The story behind the story

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Elon Musk seems to have revealed a burner Twitter account, @ErmnMusk, created in November 2022 and featuring bizarre tweets like “Do you like Japanese girls?”

Musk tweeted a screenshot on Monday evening which appeared to show him signed into a second account.

VICE Jordan Pearson

Context & Ripple Effects

The apparent account disclosure arrived as Twitter was grappling with impersonation after paid Blue checks became available, with celebrity spoof accounts already generating false announcements and confusion. The early paid-check impersonation wave made visible identity signals more consequential on the platform.

Later coverage of claims surrounding the Musk-adjacent Adrian Dittmann persona underscored how difficult it can be to establish who is behind an account; one widely shared piece of purported evidence was reported to be fake. That disputed persona evidence is a useful reminder that screenshots alone do not settle account ownership.

First-order effects

  • The screenshot links Musk’s public identity to a second, apparently pseudonymous Twitter presence, making the account’s prior posts subject to scrutiny from users, advertisers, and the press.
  • Twitter’s identity and authenticity signals face a fresh credibility test because the reported connection rests on an apparent logged-in screenshot rather than a formal platform confirmation.

Second-order effects

  • Public figures and brands have a stronger incentive to distinguish official communications from personal, parody, and pseudonymous accounts, particularly where account provenance can affect reputational risk.
  • The incident reinforces the confusion exposed by fake celebrity accounts during the paid-check rollout, increasing pressure on Twitter to make account status and affiliation legible.

Third-order effects

  • If high-profile users continue to communicate across official and pseudonymous identities, platform verification will be judged less as a badge and more as an account-provenance system.
  • The broader risk is a more fragmented information environment in which screenshots and informal attribution compete with platform-level confirmation; that outcome depends on whether platforms improve identity disclosures.

The trend: This is one data point in the shift from simple verified-profile badges toward more explicit provenance and affiliation signals for high-reach accounts.

Discussion

  • @elonmusk Elon Musk on x
    Content creators may wish to enable subscriptions on this platform. Just tap on Monetization in settings. https://twitter.com/...
  • @theserfstv @theserfstv on x
    BREAKING: Elon Musk has allegedly revealed a secret alt account where he pretends to be a child version of himself posting a lot of bizarre sexual content https://twitter.com/...
  • @paleofuture Matt Novak on x
    Musk responding to himself with an alt account https://twitter.com/...
  • @paleofuture Matt Novak on x
    Not sure what's going on here https://twitter.com/...
  • @junlper @junlper on x
    can we put this guy in jail yet https://twitter.com/...
  • @shaun_vids Shaun on x
    is ‘pervert child’ elon's first original comedic creation? if so i think i'm okay if he just keeps stealing https://twitter.com/...
  • @luciascarlet @luciascarlet on x
    WHAT https://twitter.com/...
  • @ermnmusk Elon Test on x
    I will finally turn 3 on May 4th!
  • @baddestmamajama Jessica Ellis on x
    Look I'm sorry you cannot ask me to process “Elon Musk has an alt where he pretends to be a creepy baby” on this, Tucker Carlson's shame promenade day.
  • @theserfstv @theserfstv on x
    Is this a real peon video? (asks a allegedly 50 year old Elon Musk) https://twitter.com/...
  • @peterkirn @peterkirn on x
    Twitter is so amazingly broken. Now half my feed is in Japanese. I think the engineers are trolling Elon.
  • @sashaperigo Sasha Perigo on x
    Until Elon Musk posted a screenshot of his subscriber count earlier today, revealing the icon of his alt account, his alt @ErmnMusk had zero followers. On his alt he'd begged for followers, responded to his main account's tweets, and tweeted “Do you like Japanese girls?” https://…
  • @functi0nzer0 Laurence on x
    Elon Musk has an alt where he larps as a young child asking if people like Japanese girls and you're bearish on mental illness, anon?
  • @gyaigyimii @gyaigyimii on x
    Your burner account that? https://twitter.com/...
  • @shashj Shashank Joshi on x
    “FTX was a preoccupation for the [Elon Musk burner account] @ErmnMusk account, which interacted with conspiracy theories—one saying that FTX was a middle party to laundering funds through Ukraine for U.S. Democrats” https://www.vice.com/...
  • @dexerto @dexerto on x
    Elon Musk revealed he makes over $120,000/month in Twitter subscription revenue according to his screenshot showing subscriber count https://twitter.com/...
  • @samknight1 @samknight1 on x
    B L E A K https://twitter.com/...
  • @mattbinder Matt Binder on x
    around 24,700 Twitter users are paying $4 per month directly to Elon Musk for exclusive paywalled content via the Subscription feature, making him just under $100k a month put another way that's approximately 0.018% of his 136.4 million followers https://mashable.com/...
  • @mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x
    Nearly 25,000 Twitter users pay to subscribe to Elon Musk's exclusive tweets Thats 0.018% of his 136.4million followers But it still earns him nearly $100,000 a month, $1.2 million a year https://mashable.com/...