Users on X believe that platform owner Elon Musk has been secretly operating a burner account in order to lavish praise on himself.
The allegation gained traction over the weekend after the popular comedic user known as “Liam Nissan” brought attention to the claim. Nissan and others said that the user “Adrian Dittmann,” which regularly gives acclaim to Musk and his companies, actually belongs to the billionaire.
The matter was made only worse when Nissan’s account, which boasted well over 250,000 followers, went offline shortly after.
While many have accused Musk of suspending the account, a notice of Nissan’s profile simply states that it no longer exists.
On Bluesky, Nissan told followers he left the site after the person behind the Dittman account tried to dox him, saying he began receiving creepy DMs with personal information.
Nissan, who is known to regularly criticize Musk, had also been suspended from X earlier this month for allegedly violating the platform’s terms of service.
The Dittmann account garnered widespread attention earlier this month after appearing in an X Spaces audio chat with Infowars host Alex Jones.
Joined by conspiracy theorist David Icke, who believes that the world’s top leaders are actually lizards, Jones and his guest both questioned whether they were actually talking to Musk based on the individual’s eerily similar speech.
Others, though, suggested the voice on the Spaces could have been a cloning effort using AI. Musk called it “next level,” although Dittmann denied he used AI, saying that was his voice.
Users began examining Dittmann’s account and found that he often replied to Musk’s official account.
In one example, Dittmann responded to a tweet from Musk alongside his child by proclaiming: “You’re an amazing father, Elon. Your kids are very lucky to have you.”
In other examples, Dittmann is seen responding to Musk with applause for making jokes.
The account also hypes Tesla, Musk’s electric car company.
The hashtag #FreeLiamNissan has been trending ever since. Musk has also been accused of hypocrisy given his repeated claims of supporting free speech on X.
This is not the first time Musk has been accused of operating a burner account. In April 2023, Musk shared a screenshot of his profile which appeared to expose a secondary account.
The account, which posed as a toddler, also frequently interacted with Musk’s main profile.
Musk has not taken credit for either account.
This post has been updated.
