Not content with just taking @x! Elon Musk grabs @music username, criticized as a thief

Just two weeks after being exposed for taking over the personal account "@x" for free, Twitter's former CTO Elon Musk was criticized again yesterday for forcibly taking over someone else's username. A Twitter user named Jeremy Vaught claimed that his 16-year-old account "@music" was notified by Twitter officials that it would be taken over, and only offered alternative similar accounts.

Recap: Elon Musk was exposed for taking over the "@x" account for free, original user: only received product and email notifications

Another Takeover for Free?

Vaught tweeted yesterday that his @music account, which he single-handedly created and managed, received a notification from the X official.

Consistent with the content and tone previously received by the @x user, X claimed ownership of @music and stated that the account's content would be transferred to another account.

The email read:

We appreciate your loyalty and hope to minimize any inconvenience that may arise.

It is reported that @music was established in 2007 for irregularly releasing new music and artist news. Currently, the account has been transferred to "@musicfan," along with its followers and tweets.

Vaught initially speculated that the account might have been taken from another "@musicfan_" account, but a search on the website activity tracker WayBack Machine revealed that the account never existed, had no activity, or had not been accessed by anyone.

Some Alternative Account Names Have Already Been Used

The email also provided Vaught with other alternative options. However, a closer look on Twitter for one of the options, "@musicmusic," revealed that the account was created as early as 2007, with only one tweet, but still an existing account.

Vaught criticized this:

I didn't think to check their records, and one of them was already in use. If I chose that account, I would have become an accomplice in stealing the account.

Some users commented under the tweet that their accounts had been transferred to other users years ago and they could no longer access them. This shows that the Twitter official account takeover event did not just happen after Musk acquired the company.

@X Account Controversy

In fact, Musk unilaterally taking over account names that originally belonged to other users is not the first time.

Just two weeks ago, Musk invited @x account holder Gene X Hwang to visit the X headquarters, gave away related merchandise, and sent an "unilateral notice" email similar to what Jeremy Vaught saw, thus acquiring the @x account that originally belonged to him for free.

The incident sparked controversy and brought a lot of attention to single-letter account names, causing their prices to skyrocket. Musk has yet to respond to this.