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Elon Musk’s Instagram Account Is Suddenly Unavailable

Musk’s Instagram was unavailable on Tuesday morning, spurring speculation that the Tesla CEO may have deleted his account.

Elon Musk’s Instagram Account Is Suddenly Unavailable
Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during a Boring Co. event in Los Angeles, California, U.S. (Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk may be heeding calls to step away from social media -- though not from the account where he’s been stirring up controversy.

Musk’s Instagram was unavailable on Tuesday morning, spurring speculation that the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer may have deleted his account. A Tesla spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Musk left the photo-sharing app.

Musk’s social media use has come under intense scrutiny of late. Earlier this month, he claimed on Twitter that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private, without providing evidence. Almost a full week later, he wrote in a blog post that it would be premature to release details including the nature and source of the funding. Some investors and analysts have since cast doubt on Musk’s ability to pull off the deal, and his tweet was said to have drawn a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Elon Musk’s Instagram Account Is Suddenly Unavailable
Elon Musk@elonmusk
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.

Sent via Twitter for iPhone.

View original tweet.

In July, after Musk called a cave explorer who helped rescue a dozen boys in Thailand a pedophile, Gene Munster of venture capital firm Loup Ventures wrote in an open letter that the Tesla CEO consider taking a “sabbatical” from Twitter. Musk later apologized.

To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Zuidijk in London at dzuidijk@bloomberg.net;Nour Al Ali in Dubai at nalali1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Kingdon at ckingdon@bloomberg.net, ;Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Nate Lanxon, Jamie Butters

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