Elon Musk suddenly stops tweeting

Elon Musk has suddenly stopped tweeting.

It is now more than a week since the Tesla and SpaceX boss posted on the platform that he is trying to buy.

Mr Musk’s last tweet came on 21 June. That was a reply to a post about the fight between SpaceX and FCC over the former’s space internet programme, Starlink.

A day later, on 22 June, Mr Musk liked a number of posts. Some of them were about his attempt to take over Twitter, and others were entirely unrelated.

But since that day, exactly one week ago, Mr Musk has not posted on the platform at all. He made no announcement about a possible departure, and has not explained the silence.

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He even stayed silent as he crossed the milestone of having 100 million followers, something shared with very few members of the platform.

Mr Musk is one of Twitter’s most high-profile users, and is an unusually prolific poster among celebrities. Before his unexplained silence, he had posted at least once a day for more than a month.

Still, it is not the first time he has quit Twitter for some time. In recent years, he has occasionally announced that he would stop using the platform – and usually come back in a matter of days.

The silence comes amid increasing scrutiny of both Twitter and Mr Musk’s use of it. He has been moving closer to finalising his purchase of the deal, which has been improved by shareholders, but has continued to suggest that the site has more fake accounts than it publicly admits to.

Mr Musk also stopped tweeting very soon after SpaceX employees organised an open letter that criticised him for his relentless posting and the effect it had on the company.

“Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” the letter read.

“As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company.”

Soon after, SpaceX was reported to have fired at least some of the employees involved in organising the letter.