Stephen King railed against Elon Musk renaming social media platform Twitter as X.
The horror author had a clear message to the billionaire, who bought the platform in October 2022 and quickly made a swathe of dramatic changes, including giving it a new name. Musk even changed the widely recognized bird logo of Twitter to an X.
"Dear Elon: Twitter. Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. And so on. F*** your need to put your personal brand on everything. Just because you bought it doesn't mean you own it," King posted on X on Wednesday in a post that's gone viral with 6.3 million views at the time of writing.
Just moments later he added: "Just because you bought it doesn't mean you own it," with that post getting 1.9 million views.
The pair aren't strangers to voicing their opinions on the social media platform, with King regularly going after Republican lawmakers. They have even sparred on X in the past.
"This X s***'s got to go," King wrote in November with the hashtag "#ChangeItBack."
Musk noticed the post and simply responded with the platforms new logo, "𝕏𝕏."
Just because you bought it doesn't mean you own it.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 15, 2024
Since taking over the platform, Musk has revealed his plans for X, including making it an "everything app," similar to the Chinese WeChat app that allows users to send messages, perform banking tasks, pay bills and order cabs.
The overhaul was "an exceptionally rare thing—in life or in business—that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square[...] There's absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can deliver, well....everything," X CEO Linda Yaccarino previously said.
When Musk first took over Twitter, King shared his pessimism on his ability to run it well.
"I think Elon Musk is a visionary," he wrote in 2022. "Almost singlehandedly, he's changed the way Americans think about automobiles. I have a Tesla and love it. That said, he's been a terrible fit for Twitter. He appears to be making it up as he goes along."
Musk replied: "Suggestions are welcome Mr. [King]," using a crown emoji instead of King's last name.
Despite their tense relationship and public social media jabs, Musk said in 2022 on X that he admired King, who was "one of most creative people on Earth. While I may not agree with everything he says, I do actually want to hear it."
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