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X owner Elon Musk has once again hijacked a rare coveted username from its original user.

This time, however, the takeover wasn’t for the good of X the company, it was so Musk could promote Donald Trump for president.

On Saturday, Musk appeared at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler Pennsylvania. However, earlier that day, Musk began promoting his pro-Trump Super PAC, called America PAC, using a brand new handle @America.

“Read @America to understand why I’m supporting Trump for President,” Musk’s new bio said as of approximately 1:30pm ET on Saturday, Oct. 5.

The @America handle appeared attached to a brand new account setup just this month, in October 2024. However, this rare, one-word geographic handle had already been long registered by another X user more than 14 years prior to Musk taking the handle from them, in September 2010.

According to a person familiar with the situation, X took the handle from the user much like how Musk’s social media company took the @X handle from its original registrant last year.

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[-] Myxomatosis@lemmy.world 214 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I’m not interested in what a drug-addled white supremacist has to say. I’m not allowed to use edibles on my days off because it can put my job at risk but this piece-of-shit uses ketamine, acid, shrooms and cocaine and is still allowed to have expensive government contracts.

[-] Zementid@feddit.nl 55 points 1 week ago

I don't get how anyone can Take Acid and stay a fascist. It creates the quite opposite feelings to hate.

[-] Myxomatosis@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago

Same situation with Joe Rogan. He’s a giant pothead but gets to use in Texas which has some of the strictest regulations in the country.

[-] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Some of those drugs will change your brain chemistry permanently or rewire it. They can even make you paranoid and start to believe weird conspiracies.

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[-] sue_me_please@awful.systems 10 points 1 week ago

I used to think this until I met an acidhead who would dose every weekend. Most racist person I've ever met and, if anything, the acid made him more racist.

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 145 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

After this, I don't know what more proof anyone could possibly need that Xitter is purely a right-wing propaganda platform exactly equivalent to the likes of Truth [sic] Social. Anyone who continues to use Xitter supports this behavior. Continued use of accounts like @POTUS or @KamalaHarris or these is effectively an endorsement of equating Donald Trump with America. It has to stop! The platform has to be fully abandoned by every single person, organization, or government entity that isn't fascist; there is no choice now.

[-] n1ck_n4m3@lemmy.world 141 points 1 week ago

If you're still on Xitter at this point, you deserve all the bullshit you get. That place is a cesspool. You can't swim in the toilet and then pretend to be mad you're covered in shit.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This sends a clear message: if you still have a valuable handle, sell it now.

[-] Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 1 week ago

You can’t swim in the toilet and then pretend to be mad you’re covered in shit.

This is one of the best quotes I've ever heard. Definitely made my day.

[-] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

The Other Truth Social.

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[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 79 points 1 week ago

Stealing @America sounds about right up his alley. Just like T Daddy.

[-] YeetPics@mander.xyz 78 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This is probably the most American thing elon has ever accomplished; taking something that isn't theirs and using it to hurl feces.

[-] nexguy@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Yea. You would never see that in [insert name of literally any country]

/s

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[-] tiefling 63 points 1 week ago

Imagine a world where this shit was illegal

[-] superkret@feddit.org 82 points 1 week ago

Imagine a world where this shit was irrelevant.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It'd be a weird world unless X/Twitter was government run. But at some point we're going to hit the mother of all lawsuits... email is a standard communication medium for folks and lots of people still, and have forever, used @ hotmail, yahoo or gmail addresses.

It will be really fucking interesting the first time one of those companies seizes an address and diverts some critical notification.

[-] Clent@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago

I can't wait until Trump loses interest in Musk.

I hope it's the final push over the edge Musk needs.

[-] Breezy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Could you imagine come November trump loses and musk just shots himself to Mars for forever. What a good day that'll be.

[-] Clent@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Four words too many on that first sentence.

At this point though, I have a sinking suspicion that Trump is going to win. I hope I'm wrong but I'm in a swing state and it feels more like 2016 than 2020 to me. America is full of ignorant people who are too prideful to realize how absolutely ignorant they are.

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[-] wildcardology@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Not until he has no billions left, like Mike pillow.

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[-] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Nah, Trump will put Musk on his cabinet, possibly Secretary of Transportation. Which is ironic that Musk has an electric car company but the GOP is all about fossil fuel. We've seen gas guzzling pick ups block multiple super chargers to fuck with Tesla owners.

[-] Clent@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

How many people in Trump's cabinet lasted the whole term?

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[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 44 points 1 week ago

What a fucking loser honestly

[-] vanontom@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Fully weaponizing "his platform" to influence the election. Painting a target on his back, making more enemies by the day. (Only this time, it's not just his drug-induced paranoia.) Gambling everything, once again. Accidentally buying "the town square" was his biggest mistake.

[-] EnderMB@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago

Honest question from a non-American.

If Trump loses, how much of a case does Harris have of going after Musk for interfering in an election?

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 week ago

Probably very little.

I'm not up to speed on what Twitter is doing these days outside of what's reported here on lemmy.

Unless Musk starts saying things like "Polls are closing early so don't bother voting because Trump won" or things that will suppress votes, his actions and tweets are going to be categorized as political free speech, which has broad interpretation in the US. Sad, but true.

We, as well as our government officials, should remember that Twitter is not the public town square. It's a dumpster fire that is owned by a private entity that permits users to throw their shit into. That private entity is within their right to do whatever they want within the confines of the law.

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[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 11 points 1 week ago

None, because there isn't even a pretension of justice under fascism.

[-] JWBananas@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago
[-] ZMonster@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

It is unbelievable to me how everyone is just walzing past the fact that a super-pac organizer attended a rally with the candidate.

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[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 33 points 1 week ago

See you don't get it, it's totally fine for musk to take the @America tag and push Twitter for Trump. Twitter was SUPER biased before because you couldn't say the N-word whenever you want. It's not biased at all now because it's completely far right which is obviously the Correct Way to Be™ so it can't be biased.

-dipshits

[-] frazw@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago

"Let me tell you why I claim to support trump."

The real reasons would never be spoken aloud.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Musk is a moron. So.

I wouldn’t take that bet. Even if ordinarily you’d be right.

[-] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 week ago

Can Americans become media-literate quickly? That question could determine the election

[-] corroded@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Half of Americans are barely literate at all, forget media-literate.

[-] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

How long before Musk/Trump merges Twitter and Truth? They're basically the same place at this point.

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[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 1 week ago

What an absolute shameless piece of shit.

[-] ApeNo1@lemm.ee 22 points 1 week ago

I don’t need to read @America to know why you support Trump. We all know. All of us know Elon.

[-] buzz86us@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Vote for Trump so I won't lose my captive market 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

But MAH FREEZED PEACH! The world's town square, argle bargle....

-Any given Crazy Uncle Liberty, probably.

[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

You can't beat musk on his own platform, it's long since time to use a big boy one.

[-] Jode@midwest.social 12 points 1 week ago

Do Twitter usernames have value? Could this be considered a massive in kind campaign contribution?

I would argue if the users don't hold value, and the content is made by the uses, the company would need a re-evaluation of near zero value. Then again .. Lemmy has no value to usernames. As you and I can have the same username, as we are on different instances. But that is attached to the idea of disenfranchising the value behind the instance ownership.

[-] MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Even if they did, Musk gave it to his own PAC, not the Trump campaign.

[-] celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago

Now I'm no legal expert, but wouldn't appropriating someone's social media account to post your own political propaganda literally be a violation of that user's 1st amendment rights? Isn't Musk really into freedom of speech?

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[-] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago
[-] Jeffool@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Sure it sucks, but it can't be a surprise anymore.

The username @X was also taken from a user. Same with @Music, who if I recall correctly, was a fan of Musk and was even subscribing to Twitter at the time. They even continued to do what @Music was doing with music recommendations, so it was barely a rebrand. It was basically just hijacking the work someone else put into establishing their social media presence.

[-] Old_Yharnam@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I really don’t think Trump’s dick can go any further into Musk’s mouth

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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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