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.

  • Myxomatosis@lemmy.world
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    2 months 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.

    • Zement@feddit.nl
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      2 months 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
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        2 months 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
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          2 months 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.

      • sue_me_please@awful.systems
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        2 months 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.

    • bean@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Because they think they can control him. Possibly why he’s so hell bent on this now too. It would explain some things. But he’s still a piece of shit no matter what. 🙃

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    2 months 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.

    • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 months ago

      Yup, it’s the new fascist bar.

      Those non-fascist influencers, celebs, and other “must have” content sources for the remaining audience need to talk amongst themselves, decide on a new platform, and leave together. Their audience will see it, momentarily snap out of the inertia, download a new app, and barely notice the difference. Non-fascist politicians and news orgs who have to go to where the people are will have cover and can follow suit. It can be over in a week.

  • n1ckn4m3@lemmy.world
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    2 months 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.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Anyone still in Twitter is a clown. It’s not different from being on Truth Social.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Indeed. I feel sorry for those people that feel compelled to still be on it for their jobs, or for their side-hustle/main-hustle or whatever, but yeah, anyone still on there just because? I have no idea, unless they are Nazis or Nazi adjacent.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    2 months ago

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

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      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
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    2 months 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
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      2 months 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
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        2 months 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.

        • Breezy@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Naw it feels like a mix of 16 and 08. Theres so much energy around harris, but its bogged down by all the hate from trump. But im older, Obama was elected when i was in high school amd thats when i started paying attention to politics

          • Clent@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Older than me? I’ve got probably a decade on you. My first (major) political awareness involves blowjobs and dress stains. I vaguely recall Iraq Part 1 and the excitement around it being televised live.

            My abandoned Reddit account is older than some of the people I interact with on here.

            I hope you’re right. As with all the recent elections where the Democratic Party wins, it’s all down to the youth vote. Also, really hopefully this one has even more extra support from the uterus carrying people amongst us than anticipated by the polls.

            • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              It comes down to people in 7 states. And after seeing interviews with some swing voters, they aren’t deep thinkers.

              We’re fucked and i’m currently making my escape plan.

            • Breezy@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Do you not feel the change approach? She hasnt come out and used Obama’s exact phrasing, but it feels like shes going to bring some change that we desperately need.

              • zbyte64@awful.systems
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                2 months ago

                Her bringing on Tim Walz keeps that hope alive for me. Like even if she somehow disappoints me, there will be Walz who can inject some “mind your own business” socialism at the national stage. I wish he would have more faith in his own speaking abilities though.

              • Clent@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                I have no issues with her. And I think she will be a better leader than we’ve had in a while. Possible bette than Obama who seemed too afraid to be bold in his actions.

                But the news cycles are all about Trump and I know people who still plan to vote for him and the polls are still awfully close that it could easily swing either way.

                I feel like I am stuck in a political demographic where I am the outlier. It sounds like the view might be better from where you stand.

      • dezmd@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Musk Pillow has a nice ring to it. He’s going to do a lot of harm to good tech when he really crashes out after Trump loses.

    • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
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      2 months 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.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Some personal physician will OD him on Special-K because he got tired of his shit.

    • Vanon@lemmy.world
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      2 months 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
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    2 months 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
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      2 months 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.

      • ZMonster@lemmy.world
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        2 months 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.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I’m more worried about election officials getting star treatment at a candidate’s rallies.

          • ZMonster@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            52 USC 30118: Contributions or expenditures by national banks, corporations, or labor organizations
            Text contains those laws in effect on October 6, 2024

            It is unlawful for any national bank, or any corporation organized by authority of any law of Congress, to make a contribution or expenditure in connection with any election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, or for any corporation whatever, or any labor organization, to make a contribution or expenditure in connection with any election at which presidential and vice presidential electors or a Senator or Representative in, or a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, Congress are to be voted for, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any of the foregoing offices, or for any candidate, political committee, or other person knowingly to accept or receive any contribution prohibited by this section, or any officer or any director of any corporation or any national bank or any officer of any labor organization to consent to any contribution or expenditure by the corporation, national bank, or labor organization, as the case may be, prohibited by this section.

            It’s one of the few threads of campaign finance law that still exist. Things to keep in mind, in-kind contributions are still contributions. An example would be, directing your private business that is in no way affiliated with your super PAC to promote and fundraise for the candidate that you are standing on stage at a rally with. If that isn’t “in connection with” then I don’t know what is.

            • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              If you make the connection that Elon being there is also “in connection with” then wouldn’t that now spill over with Elon acting as the head of twitter, confiscating the @America handle to give to the SuperPAC to promote Trump? One links the other?

              In which case Twitter is now providing an in kind contribution?

              Assuming that is a problem, then the only way it wouldn’t be is if the SuperPAC itself paid the original holder of @America to sell it to them and then Twitter did the hand over at both parties request?

              • ZMonster@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                This is of course subject to whatever SCOTUS sock puppet Alito has his ghostly hand up the ass of, but the way it was intended to work was that super pacs can receive and spend limitlessly so long as there is no coordination with the candidate. Elon can’t call trump and ask what trump would like the pac to do. So Elon being a right wing shit head is legal all day, so long as he doesn’t do any of his right wing shit headery in connection with trump.

                And yes, that would usually imply that if there is coordination then all contributions, even those in kind, are campaign contributions and must be regulated and disclosed. Which they aren’t. And probably won’t be. But if this case comes up in a few years, the right wing shit head chorus will cry alligator tears about the poor oppressed witch-hunted trump. FML.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Look who really owns Twitter. It’s the people who loaned Musk money for his buyout.

        Who is top of that list? Saudi Arabia.

        And now Twitter is fully in service to the Republican party? Sounds like foreign electoral intervention to me…

    • TechAnon@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I don’t think she’ll have to. MAGA will implode along with Truth Social, Twitter, and maybe even Tesla as I’m sure Elon has turned off many potential buyers just as competing car companies are getting closer in value as Tesla.

  • frazw@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “Let me tell you why I claim to support trump.”

    The real reasons would never be spoken aloud.

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    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

    • zbyte64@awful.systems
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      2 months ago

      My 🔮 says they will someday pitch investors on federating with Blue Sky, after which they will discover no one wants their content.