Elon Musk breaks Twitter silence after nine days

Last time Tesla titan had taken to social media app was 21 June

(AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk has broken his Twitter silence after nine days.

The Tesla billionaire re-appeared on the social media app he is attempting to buy for $44bn for the first time since 21 June on Friday evening, posting a tribute to a YouTuber who died of cancer, a picture of his four sons having an audience with Pope Francis and a throwback to his 40th birthday weekend.

Mr Musk tweeted a tribute to the late YouTuber that stated: “Popular Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade with 12 Billion subscribers recently passed away at the age of 23 due to cancer, and this made [me] realize that cancer is [an] absurd piece of literal garbage and death, but also try to live your best life with people who know. They could die the following day, and you would regret not doing things with them.”

He also tweeted: “Feeling … perhaps … a little bored?”

The entrepreneur also posted a photo of the Pope with himself, his son Griffin, 18, and triplets, Kai, Damian and Sax Musk, who are all 16.

Mr Musk also shared a photo of himself in a “tragic suit” he wore the last time he visited Venice with his now ex-wife Talulah Riley.

Mr Musk’s last tweet on 21 June was a reply to a post about the fight between SpaceX and FCC over the former’s space internet programme, Starlink.

A day later, on 22 June, Mr Musk liked a number of posts. Some of them were about his attempt to take over Twitter, and others were entirely unrelated.

But since that day, exactly one week ago, Mr Musk has not posted on the platform at all. He made no announcement about a possible departure, and has not explained the silence.

He even stayed silent as he crossed the milestone of having 100 million followers, something shared with very few members of the platform.

Mr Musk is one of Twitter’s most high-profile users, and is an unusually prolific poster among celebrities. Before his unexplained silence, he had posted at least once a day for more than a month.