Elon Musk Reminds Us He’s Full of Sh*t with Ridiculous Denial About Twitter Boosting His Tweets

AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File

Twitter CEO Elon Musk just provided one of the most egregious examples of, “Who are you gonna believe – me or your own lying eyes?”

On Friday, Musk addressed a report published on Tuesday by the tech news site Platformer, which said he ordered Twitter’s algorithm changed to increase engagement with his account. The reporting made sense, considering the day before, The Verge noted on Monday that users en masse said they were being inundated with Musk’s tweets in the “For You” feed, which is the default setting for many. Even those not following Musk have been seeing his tweets at the top of their feed, such as yours truly.

Musk denied the Platformer report.

“Several major media sources incorrectly reported that my Tweets were boosted above normal levels earlier this week,” Musk tweeted. “A review of my Tweet likes & views over the past 6 months, especially as a ratio of followers, shows this to be false.”

Pardon me if I don’t take this guy’s word for it. Moreover, no one said anything about “six months.” The reporting in question is based what users have seen this week.

As I’ve explained before, Musk is pathologically full of shit on a range of matters. Liar, liar, Tesla on fire.

In this case, he’s channeling his inner Trump by telling us what we’re seeing is not actually what’s happening.

So let’s review a few things.

Last week in an earlier report, Platformer said Musk summoned what’s left of the company’s engineering team to demand they explain why his tweets were no longer getting the kind of engagement they were earlier in the year.

The publication cited multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting.

“This is ridiculous,” Musk declared. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.”

Employees showed Musk internal company data and a Google Trends chart showing interest in him online peaked in April when it was announced he was going to buy Twitter. That interest gradually waned over the summer as Musk tried to wriggle out of the purchase agreement. Interest ticked up again at the end of October when he officially bought the company.

“You’re fired,” he told the engineer who showed him the Trends chart.

On Monday, The Verge published a piece noting how scores of users were reporting Musk’s tweets kept appearing at the top of their “For You” feeds, including users who don’t follow him.

Hours after the report dropped, Musk tweeted a meme of a woman force-feeding milk to another. In a subsequent tweet, he stated, “Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh .… ‘algorithm.'”

The next day, Platformer published its report stating that Twitter employees received a Slack message at 2:36 a.m. on Monday from James Musk, the CEO’s cousin who now works at the company.

“We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform,” wrote Musk, a cousin of the Twitter CEO, tagging “@here” in Slack to ensure that anyone online would see it. “Any people who can make dashboards and write software please can you help solve this problem. This is high urgency. If you are willing to help out please thumbs up this post.”

When bleary-eyed engineers began to log on to their laptops, the nature of the emergency became clear: Elon Musk’s tweet about the Super Bowl got less engagement than President Joe Biden’s.

Platformer noted its reporting “is based on interviews with people familiar with the events involved and supported by documents obtained by Platformer.”

Lastly, Musk said he knows who the publication’s source is.

“The ‘source’ of the bogus Platformer article is a disgruntled employee who had been on paid time off for months, had already accepted a job at Google and felt the need to poison the well on the way out,” he tweeted. “Twitter will be taking legal action against him.”

Casey Newton, who along with Zoë Schiffer, wrote the story, threw cold water on that claim.

“This is completely false. We stand by our reporting,” he stated unequivocally.

Of course. Elon Musk is pathologically full of shit.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!