The SpaceX CEO hinted at a backup plan in case the infamous Twitter deal falls through.
Never underestimate billionaire genius Elon Musk. Despite his ongoing $44 billion legal battle with Twitter, Musk is already formulating a backup plan in case the deal to purchase the social media platform does not push through. Enter X.com, a potential social media site developed by Musk himself.
On Tuesday night, Musk replied to a Twitter thread in which Tesla Owners Silicon Valley asked him if he ever thought about creating his own social media platform in the event that he couldn't buy Twitter. His answer, simply, was "X.com."
What is X.com?
According to Gizmodo, X.com is a "potential new social media platform" from Musk, who has signaled his desire to make his own social media company amidst his legal battle with Twitter. X.com is currently a plain white website with just "x" as its contents, as if to bookmark the domain.
X.com was formerly owned by PayPal. Musk, who previously served as PayPal's CEO, purchased the domain from the company in 2017. However, the billionaire tech tycoon actually co-founded X.com way back in 1999 as an online bank, before the website merged with a competitor in 2000.
In 2017, Musk purchased X.com again because it had "great sentimental value" to him and explained that the best use for the domain would be as a website for all of his endeavors, including Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk's Legal Battle With Twitter Intensifies
Hints at a possible social media site X.com comes amidst Musk's court battle with Twitter over his attempt to rescind a proposal to purchase the social media company. According to The Hill, the tech billionaire is attempting to exit the deal over the actual number of spam and fake accounts, which he claims is greater than the figures Twitter presented.
Twitter then filed a lawsuit against Musk, requiring him to push through with the $44 billion purchase of the company, but the tech tycoon countersued for fraud, breach of contract and violation of a securities law in Texas, claiming that they had mislead him over the actual size of its user base, the New York Post reported.
Musk, who initially wanted to purchase Twitter to "defeat the spam bots," accused Twitter of lying about the actual number of fake accounts on its platform. The tech tycoon claims that his team used Twitter's "firehose" of tweets and Botometer to show that spam accounts actually amounted to 33% of its user base, a far larger figure than Twitter's estimate of 5%, CNN reported.
Now, one of Botometer's makers has spoken out, expressing surprise that Musk's team used the free, publicly available tool instead of "[spending] money on hiring people to build some sophisticated tool or methods by himself." Kaicheng Yang is a researcher at Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media and a co-creator of Botometer.
Yang explained that Botometer actually doesn't show whether an account is fake or spam but instead shows how likely it is to be automated. This is expected to be a major point of contention in the upcoming Twitter vs. Musk trial, as the definition of "bot" is rather unclear.
Musk Awaits Twitter Trial
A trial for the lawsuits is set for October 17 in Delaware Chancery Court. Meanwhile, Musk on Tuesday showed through regulatory filings that he sold almost $7 billion worth of Tesla shares amidst the Twitter legal fiasco despite saying in April that he had no intentions of selling more Tesla shares.
Musk reasoned that it was important to "avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock" in the event that equity partners do not come through when he is forced to finally buy Twitter.
