Overview

Adrian Dittmann / Elon Musk "Sock Puppet" Theory, also known as Elon Musk Alt Account Controversy, refers to speculation that the Twitter / X account of a user named Adrian Dittmann is purportedly run by Elon Musk and that he uses the "Dittmann" account to praise himself on Twitter, amplify his ideas and appear "anonymously" in Twitter Spaces. The theory drew increased attention in mid-February 2024 after Twitter user "Liam Nissan" had their account vanish from the platform shortly after accusing Adrian Dittmann of being Musk, leading to backlash against the Twitter / X CEO over the following days.

Background

The Twitter / X account @AdrianDittmann^[1] launched in July 2021 and has gained over 46,000 followers as of February 2024. The account first started generating confusion about its identity in August 2023 when Dittmann appeared in a Twitter Spaces with Musk. The two appeared to chat, while others in the group felt Dittmann could have been doing an incredible Elon Musk impersonation or was utilizing AI voice software to mimic Musk (video of the exchange uploaded to YouTube by BITQUOTES shown below).

Of note, Musk has been speculated to use a burner account in the past, which he purportedly used to pretend to be a toddler and reply to tweets from his main account.

Developments

On February 9th, 2024, Dittmann joined a Spaces talk with Alex Jones in which attendees once again guessed, perhaps jokingly, that Dittmann was Musk, though Dittmann denied it^[2] (shown below).

On February 15th, 2024, Adrian Dittmann tweeted, "The amount of quality content on 𝕏 is drastically increasing," to which user @TheLiamNissan,^[3] a prominent parody account that is often highly critical of Musk, tweeted "Eat a dick #SissySpaceX, we know it's you," implying that he had guessed Adrian Dittmann was Elon Musk's alt account (shown below).

The above exchange and the Alex Jones clip led to increased suspicion that Dittmann was Musk's alt account, causing people to comb through some of Dittmann's tweets in which they claimed that Dittmann supposedly tweeted like Musk, heaped praise on Musk and championed Musk-led ventures such as Tesla. For example, on February 17th, Twitter user @Fella_IA_X25^[6] tweeted a screenshot of Dittmann laughing at one of Musk's jokes, gaining over 150 retweets and 890 likes in two days (shown below).

On February 18th, 2024, TheLiamNissan's account vanished from the platform, causing widespread speculation that Musk had banned TheLiamNissan for purportedly outing the "Adrian Dittmann" sock puppet account and general criticisms of Musk.^[4] However, this was not the case, and on February 19th, Liam Nissan^[5] posted to Bluesky that he had deactivated his Twitter account after receiving "creepy threats" (shown below).

The suspicion that Musk banned Liam Nissan on account of "outing Dittmann" led to an increased focus on Dittmann's tweets. Another widely reposted screenshot shows Dittmann calling Musk an "amazing father" and that his kids are "lucky to have" him in January 2024.^[7] (shown below).

Dittmann continued to deny that he is Musk in February 2024, though several of these denials^[8][9] (shown below) did not convince many doubters who felt they aligned too closely with Musk's style.

Nick Fuentes Twitter Space

On May 5th, 2024, white supremacist Nick Fuentes held a Twitter Spaces event at which Adrian Dittmann was present. Fuentes had just been reinstated by Musk after he was banned from the platform in early 2023 for repeatedly making antisemitic remarks and sharing conspiracy theories. Other personalities present in the Space included Andrew Tate, Sneako, Destiny and Alex Jones. According to X, the Space had 2.2 million listeners over the course of its three and a half hour run.^[12]

A repost of the Space by leahmcelrath on May 6th featuring Adrian Dittmann's commentary (and erroneously referring to him as 'Andrew') received over 5,000 likes in two days (seen below).^[10]

In the Twitter Space with Fuentes, Adrian Dittmann said:

In the yes of the media and the sentiment they spin, it's like… because X brought you back, it's like it almost falls onto him (Elon Musk) in a certain extent. So you have to keep that in mind as well, because you'll be doing reputational damage to him and the platform if you post certain stuff. Don't go full Kanye West, that's probably not a good idea, something like that. Keep the controversial jokes to the minimum. If I'll say one thing, it's definitely don't go down that path. Try to be -- try to be a bit more balanced if that is possible. And realize that in fact what you're doing is going to have a substantial impact. And this is only the first day of probably many days. So keep that in mind.

Nick Fuentes replied, "very well, normal individual," to which Dittmann said he was "on the spectrum," which could be the source of the "abnormality" in his speech, without making reference to the fact that he sounds like Elon Musk.

Users online commented on the development, including @TAlbert0Barbosa who received over 600 likes in two days for posting a meme (seen below) on May 6th accusing Musk of disguising himself as Dittmann.^[11]

Search Interest

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External References