An investigative reporter who debunked a bizarre conspiracy theory about X owner Elon Musk was kicked off the social media platform — sparking outcry over censorship by the self-avowed free speech absolutist.
Jacqueline Sweet, a contributor for the conservative magazine The Spectator World, did a deep dive into long-percolating rumors that Musk was using a burner account under the name Adrian Dittmann to lavish praise on himself.
Sweet tracked down the real Dittman, a German entrepreneur living in the South Pacific nation of Fiji, to disprove the theory.
After Sweet’s article outing Dittmann was published Saturday, Musk responded with his own cryptic post on X hours later.
“I am Adrian Dittmann. It’s time the world knew,” Musk wrote.
But the seemingly innocuous story took another strange twist Monday when The Spectator World’s managing editor Matt McDonald announced Sweet’s X account was suspended for 30 days and the links to her article had been slapped with a warning label, claiming “violent or misleading content.”
He also shared screenshots that showed users attempting to access her article were met with warnings about unsafe content.
Musk and X did not immediately return requests for comment.
Sweet’s last post on X came at 1:37 p.m. on Saturday, when she responded to a user about her article.
“People are so committed to believing the Elon is Adrian thing,” she wrote.
Musk’s cryptic response came about 10 hours later.
Sweet’s apparent ban sparked a firestorm with critics of Musk and X accusing the platform of suppressing content to protect Musk’s image.
“This is a direct assault on press freedom,” one X user wrote.
Others pointed to the irony of Musk’s previous condemnation of the site formerly known as Twitter when it suppressed The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop scandal during the 2020 election.
Musk supporters cheered Sweet’s suspension, arguing that the reporter crossed an ethical line by publishing private details about Dittmann.
Sweet used a combination of social media analysis, AI comparisons, and government video footage to seemingly unmask the real Dittman.
His business ventures and personal history, including participation in a Musk Foundation carbon removal contest, matched details provided by the Dittmann account, the report said.
Dittmann’s X account had raised eyebrows since early in 2023 for its over-the-top praise of Musk, sparking rumors that the Tesla CEO had been using the account to defend himself and promote his views.
Critics pointed to similarities in writing styles — with some even going as far as to suggest Musk was using a voice modulator to pose as Dittmann in live X Spaces chatrooms.
Mainstream media outlets like Rolling Stone, Newsweek and The Verge fueled the conspiracy theory, with some claiming that they had evidence that connected Musk and Dittmann directly.
YouTube / FijiGovernment
In February 2023, Dittmann made headlines when Musk directly acknowledged the similarity in their voices after the former appeared on Alex Jones’ controversial InfoWars podcast, The Daily Mail reported.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur commented: “at some point there’s just going to be like 100 AI clones of me that sound exactly the same.”
Speaking later on X’s Spaces last February, the duo spoke to each other while directly addressing claims Musk was posing as Dittmann.
Musk said: “Alex Jones thinks it’s me?”
Dittmann begins to explain the conspiracy before he is cut off by Musk.
“There’s eight billion people on the Earth,” Musk said laughing. “The odds are there’s someone who sounds like me somewhere. And you are that person.”
“Honestly, I don’t believe you’re not me,” he joked.
“People think I’m legitimately your clone,” Dittmann responded. “Like one of your Neuralink experiments. Can you clarify that I’m not one of your Neuralink experiments? Or maybe I am and I just wouldn’t realize it?”
Musk shot back: “Well, the thing is you even ask questions in the way that I would ask questions!”
The banter ended with Ditmann praising Musk for his work on X, noting he used Spaces “practically eight hours a day, three times a week” before chatting about Musk’s family.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and rebranded the site as X the following year.