Twitter owner and world’s richest man Elon Musk has made his own social media account on the site private.
The Tesla boss delivered the shocking announcement earlier today (Wednesday, February 1), but his reasoning was nothing sinister.
Instead, he shared that he was making the move in order to test whether Twitter users would see his posts more or less following the change.
READ MORE: 'Exotic' plant-based woolly mammoth burgers could be 'meatier' than a McDonalds Big Mac
Announcing his intentions, Musk said: “Made my account private until tomorrow morning to test whether you see my private tweets more than my public ones."
At the time of writing, the post has been seen by 6.1 million users – an astonishing number, but only a fraction of his 127 million followers.
This is no great deviation from the number of people who have been seeing posts in recent days, but it is far from the most visible.
On Saturday (January 28) the SpaceX mogul posted a tweet saying: “I work all day, then go home & play work simulator."
By comparison, that message was seen by 34.4 million people.
Since Musk made the original post about private tweets at 6.06 this morning, no other notes or comments are visible to see on his account.
Police called after walkers find baby abandoned on beach after mum had a coffee
The tester message has raked in a whopping 192k likes, but some people were left annoyed about what Musk was up to.
One user said: “Bro just make a new account 127m ain’t exactly ‘private’.”
Others wondered whether being able to see the tweet made them one of the lucky ones.
A user, posting a gif of actor Robert De Niro in the film Meet the Fockers, said: “If you’re seeing this tweet, you’re in the circle of trust.”
Another added: “Wow I'm in Elon's private circle."
In reality, though, it’s not that exciting. Writing about the difference between private and public tweets, Twitter said online: “When you sign up for Twitter, your Tweets are public by default; anyone can view and interact with your Tweets.”
Explaining the difference, it said that private tweets are: “Only visible to your Twitter followers. Please keep in mind, your followers may still capture images of your Tweets and share them.”
To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here .
READ NEXT:
Urban explorer discovers derelict 'deathtrap' care home that lay abandoned for decades
Train passenger's shock as strangers engage in sex act in next seat and 'don't care'
Randy cop who romped with six colleagues declares men will stick todgers 'in anything'
Inside abandoned 'time capsule' home left for 70 years as it goes on sale £590k
Source: Read Full Article