Elon Musk called out for ‘robbing’ Twitter user of ad revenue and laughing at him

Elon Musk is getting called out on Twitter after using a screenshot of another user’s tweet as a meme on his own account, ‘robbing’ them of the ad revenue they could have received.

Recently, an ad revenue system was rolled out to some of Twitter’s biggest creators. The system allows those whose tweets get consistently high traffic to get ad revenue based on how many people view their tweets, monetizing the platform in a way that it hadn’t had before.

One Twitter user by the name of Eric Zhu was left frustrated after Elon Musk reposted one of his tweets with his handle cropped out, leaving Zhu without the revenue he could have had from his viral tweet if Elon had credited him or quote tweeted the image.

After calling out Musk for reposting his tweet, Musk took notice of the callout and responded in kind.

Elon Musk laughs at Twitter user after ‘robbing’ them

The original tweet from Eric Zhu did fairly well on its own before it got picked up by Elon Musk. It showed him watching TikTok sensation Pinkydoll during Oppenheimer in what can only be described as a coalescence of viral pop culture topics.

Musk was clearly entertained by the tweet, so much so that he posted the image himself without showing the user. Eric wasn’t pleased.

This tweet has sparked a debate about Twitter’s ad revenue system, with some claiming that Elon Musk may have violated his own rules. He went on the record in the past saying that “repeated theft of posts” could result in demonetization.

It’s hard to say what could result from him reposting content considering Elon Musk is still a massive part of Twitter even if he’s no longer CEO of the company. That said, it’s also likely that Elon doesn’t engage in Tweet monetization considering his standing with the company, either.

Regardless, Elon has gone out of his way to reply to Zhu’s callout with a fairly simple response.

Musk left one laughing emoji as consolation for Zhu, leaving him devastated. That said, with the traffic that’s come to Zhu’s account due to this interaction and the original tweet, he likely had the same amount of revenue if not more due to the interaction with Musk.

Though this exchange was ultimately harmless, it’s certainly sparked a debate on how monetization on Twitter is handled.