Elon Musk Confuses Twitter With Rabbit Emoji, Some Say It's a Nod to QAnon

Elon Musk has confused Twitter users with a cryptic post that led some of them to accuse him of inciting people to join QAnon.

The billionaire Tesla CEO, who controversially bought the social media platform for $44 billion in October, tweeted "Follow 🐰" on Monday night. Quickly inundated with replies and retweets, many wondered what he meant in the message.

Some said it could be a reference to The Matrix movies' premise of choosing to take a "red pill or blue pill," which offers people the chance to learn a life-altering truth or remain blissfully ignorant.

Others presumed he was quoting Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which the main character follows a quirky rabbit into a rabbit hole only to stumble upon a fantasy world made up of anthropomorphic animals.

As a result of the book's popularity, "follow the white rabbit" has become a well-known term meaning to follow an opportunity that might lead you into an extraordinary situation.

But one Twitter user was convinced the tweet was a code for people to support QAnon, the American far-right political conspiracy theory movement.

"Elon Musk is now explicitly encouraging his 120 million followers to start following QAnon," wrote behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno.

"Put differently, Elon Musk is encouraging his 120 million followers to join a domestic terrorism movement."

QAnon regularly uses the term "follow the white rabbit" or more simply, "white rabbit" to encourage its followers to do their own research on issues.

Bueno followed up her tweet with screenshots from online forums of QAnon supporters who began to link Musk's tweet with wider conspiracy theories.

She was ridiculed for her tweets, with formerly banned Twitter user ALX, writing: "How many hit pieces will there be tomorrow from NYT & WaPo like this: 'Rabbits are the New Symbol of Right Wing Hate — Here's Why They're Dangerous'."

Musk thought ALX's take was hilarious and replied: "Bunny emojis are hate speech!!"

His latest controversial tweet comes after Musk reportedly disbanded Twitter's Trust and Safety advisory council, which monitored hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other perils on the platform.

It's not the only major change he's made at the platform since taking over as CEO.

He fired thousands of its employees globally within his first week and quickly dismantled teams such as the human rights department.

Musk's decisions since taking the helm at Twitter have come under mass scrutiny, such as reinstating former U.S. President Donald Trump's suspended account and temporarily lifting Kanye West's Twitter ban, only to suspend it again after his series of antisemitic comments.

Observers have been concerned hate speech and harassment would run amok under his watch, with some reports showing hate speech and the use of racist slurs increased significantly in the first few days after Musk took control.

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