On April 13, the New York Times reported that since spending $44 billion to acquire Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk has transformed the social media site into X and turned it into his preferred communication platform. He spends hours every day posting on the platform and has nearly 238 million followers.


Musk

But now, Musk's investment in X may be reaching a certain limit.

Last Wednesday, a TikTok account with the username @elonmusk and a certification mark posted content on the video-sharing site for the first time. In this video, Musk talks about the future, interspersed with the achievements and promotional materials of his companies such as SpaceX and Tesla.

“TikTok makes its debut, heading for the stars,” the account said. It currently has 104,600 followers.


The first post published by this account

In addition, an account with the username @elonmusk and a certification mark has also appeared on the Instagram platform recently, but has not yet published any content.

Musk, TikTok and Instagram parent company Meta did not respond to requests for comment. The New York Times was unable to independently confirm whether Musk was the mastermind behind the TikTok and Instagram accounts.

The accounts became active as Musk pushed for an initial public offering (IPO) of his rocket and satellite company SpaceX.For an IPO, Musk needs to generate widespread public interest in SpaceX to raise billions of dollars from investors. The listing could make the 54-year-old tech tycoon, now the world's richest man, the world's first trillionaire.

Musk has previously expressed disdain for X's competitors. In 2022, he briefly banned Twitter users from promoting their accounts on other social platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. In 2018, Musk deleted the Facebook pages of Tesla and SpaceX after public outcry over the way Facebook handled user data. In the same year, he said he had deleted his personal Instagram account. He said in a recent interview with podcast host Joe Rogan that he's "worried that Instagram will actually lead to more unhappiness, not less."

In 2023, Musk also said at the New York Times DealBook Summit that he had stopped using TikTok because he felt that the application's artificial intelligence was "probing" his thinking.He called the video app addictive and "riddled" with anti-Semitic content.

Internet archives show that a TikTok account using the username "@elonmusk" appeared as early as 2024, but the account did not publish content at that time and had no verification logo. TikTok often provides verification for well-known people to prevent imposters.