Elon Musk replies to Pune techie in fun banter; 'I do have a secret Instagram account'

Elon Musk may not want to establish Tesla in India due to high customs duties, but he enjoys responding to Pranay Pathole, a Pune-based software developer for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on Twitter. In a fun banter on Twitter, Musk announced on May 23 that he is no longer in charge of Pathole's Twitter account.

Pathole, who has 1.6 million followers on Twitter, tweeted, "Many people think that @elonmusk runs my Twitter account. And it's TRUE. He's a super busy guy, building rockets, making life multiplanetary, building futuristic electric vehicles, digging tunnels. And somehow he finds time to run multiple Twitter account. YES  (sic)"

Musk replied to Pathole's sarcastic tweet, saying, "Haha I don't even have a burner twitter account! I do have a cheesy secret Instagram account, so I can click on links that friends send me. (sic)"

It is worth mentioning here that the Tesla CEO and Pathole are Twitter acquaintances, and Musk rarely fails to respond to his messages. The SpaceX billionaire first responded to Pathole in 2018, and their correspondence has continued since then. They now communicate using Twitter Direct Messages (DMs). Moreover, Pathole defines himself on GitHub as a machine learning (ML) developer who enjoys "nerding out about space and rockets on Twitter." He hopes to meet Musk and collaborate with him in the future.

Musk's Twitter Deal

On April 25, the board of directors of Twitter agreed to a $44 billion takeover bid from billionaire Elon Musk. Musk had also called for a slew of changes, ranging from loosening content restrictions to eliminating fake accounts. The move comes as Twitter is under increasing scrutiny from politicians and regulators regarding the content that appears on its platform. It has drawn criticism from both the Left and the Right for its efforts to mitigate misinformation on the platform.

According to Forbes magazine, Musk is the world's richest person, with an estimated net worth of $273.6 billion, owing primarily to his stake in Tesla, which he runs. The tech billionaire is also the CEO of space firm SpaceX. Musk, who has more than 80 million Twitter followers, has a tumultuous history on the network. US financial regulators accused him of deceiving Tesla investors with his tweets in 2018, allegations that were settled for $40 million and which Musk continues to reject.