Musk locks his Twitter account

Musk makes his Twitter account private – only visible to his followers – after hearing reports from users that posts on private accounts were getting more reach than public accounts. Normally, an account would see less engagement when going private as doing this blocks users from being able to retweet posts. When a Twitter user showed that, of two similar tweets posted in the same five-minute period, the one posted when the account was locked received five times as many likes, Musk replies:

Wow, this is extremely concerning

Followed by:

Made my account private until tomorrow morning to test whether you see my private tweets more than my public ones

This helped identify some issues with the system. Should be addressed by next week.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2023

Some users questioned why Musk was doing this test, when he owns the platform.