Stephen King's viral post, in which he mocked Elon Musk over his social-media platform, has received a response from the billionaire business mogul.
The Tesla CEO officially acquired Twitter in October 2022 in a $44 billion deal that saw him introduce a plethora of changes, including renaming the platform as X.
Months before the name and logo change, Musk said that he was hoping to create an "everything app," modeled on a Chinese app called WeChat, that allows users to send messages, perform banking tasks, pay bills, and order cabs.
Author King, who is often critical of Musk, recently showed his refusal to embrace the name change as he appeared to react to a video posted by the entrepreneur.
King reposted a video he shared that Musk had shared to X, showing what seemed to be a computer-generated image of a giant X structure looming large over skyscrapers in a cityscape. Musk posted it without comment on July 18.
Responding at the time, It writer King commented: "Twitter. Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter." As of press time, the post garnered more than 11 million views.
Reiterating his feelings on Wednesday, King returned to the platform to share another post that read: "Twitter-Twitter-Twitter. Sorry, Elon. You bought it. You're stuck with it."
The post, which was viewed more than 1.1 million times within hours of its upload, caught the attention of Musk, who responded: "It hurts our feelings when you deadname."
The term "deadname" is more commonly used to refer to the name a transgender person was given at birth but no longer wishes to go by.
This is not the first time that King has weighed in on the platform's name. In November, the author wrote on X: "This X s***'s got to go." He rounded out his post with the hashtag "#ChangeItBack." Musk responded to the post by writing, "đđ," adding an emoji of a face blowing a kiss.
In February of this year, King once again affirmed his distaste for the X rebrand.
"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.
Back in November 2022âweeks after Musk officially acquired XâKing expressed his dissatisfaction with the direction the microblogging platform had taken.
"I think Elon Musk is a visionary," King wrote. "Almost single-handedly, 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."
"Suggestions are welcome Mr. [King]," Musk responded, using a crown emoji in place of King's last name.
Another user wrote in the thread that Musk should invite King to X's headquarters in San Francisco to "have a face-to-face conversation," a tweet to which Musk simply replied: "He is invited!"
Musk has commented on a number of King's X posts regarding himself and X as a whole. A few days after the CEO initially took over X, the author wrote: "I think I liked Twitter better in the pre-Musk days. Less controversy, more fun."
The business owner responded playfully with a ghost emoji. "I'm still a fan of you [to be honest]," Musk said in a follow-up post. King reportedly did not respond, and Musk later deleted the comment.
In November 2022, Musk reiterated his admiration for King, when he said in an X post that the renowned writer is "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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