- Elon Musk has been chit-chatting with a QAnon-linked influencer on Twitter, a Media Matters report says.
- Musk interacted with a Twitter user named KanekoaTheGreat at least 18 times since February 20.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been chit-chatting with an influencer linked to the QAnon conspiracy movement, per a new report from Media Matters, a liberal non-profit media watchdog.
According to a record of Musk's tweets compiled by Media Matters, Musk interacted with a Twitter user named KanekoaTheGreat at least 18 times since February 20.
Media Matters said it tracked KanekoaTheGreat's online presence and found that they were part of a QAnon influencer group known as We The Media. The Anti-Defamation League also highlights Kanekoa as one of the "extremists and conspiracy theorists" that Twitter has let back onto the platform. KanekoaTheGreat has more than 332,000 followers on Twitter.
Musk has been friendly with KanekoaTheGreat since February, and expressed support for some of the Twitter user's posts. Musk's interactions with KanekoaTheGreat include commenting "very important thread" on a tweet where the latter claimed that there were liberal biases in the AI tool ChatGPT.
—kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 20, 2023
Musk also asked KanekoaTheGreat if "testosterone levels" have "actually plummeted" in response to a meme about how men are less brave now compared to in the past.
Musk's question echoed a right-wing conspiracy theory about depleting testosterone levels pushed by shock jock Alex Jones and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 21, 2023
Musk's attention has not gone unnoticed. KanekoaTheGreat posted on their Telegram channel in December that they had obtained "the Elon Musk stamp of approval," and highlighted other occasions where Musk has responded to them.
The Twitter CEO does make a habit of being friendly with right-wing influencers like Catturd. But Musk has stopped short of saying that he believes in QAnon, a sprawling web of conspiracy theories based upon the false belief that former President Donald Trump is secretly working to tear down a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.
In March, Musk did call for the release of Jacob Chansley, better known as the "QAnon Shaman." In his tweet, Musk said that he is "not part of MAGA" but believes in "fairness of justice," basing his assessment on a clip released by Red Voice Media, a right-wing media site that says it's "owned and operated by patriots."
Musk's representatives did not immediately reply to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours.