Elon Musk Dares What No One Else Would

The microblogging website has implemented a smelly response to media requests.

Elon Musk plays by his own rules.

The whimsical and charismatic entrepreneur likes to challenge the conventions which dominate in business circles and markets.

Sometimes this costs him dearly. 

This is the case when he was fined $20 million in September 2018 and lost the title of Chairman of the Board of Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report after tweeting that he was going to take the electric vehicle manufacturer private. He had also indicated that he had secured the financing for the deal.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) came down on him, reminding him that one should be extremely cautious when posting information that could potentially impact the share price of a public company.

Unconventional

Despite the fact that Musk paid dearly for his non-compliance with this rule, the billionaire has not stopped mocking the SEC or engaging in a new showdown with the federal agency.

This is what Musk is like. He is unconventional. When it comes to conventions, he wants to undermine them, push the limits if necessary, circumvent them and invent new ones.

While he shies away from labels, there is one that applies to him: the billionaire is unpredictable, provocative and likes to test the limits of others. He likes to challenge the norm. He sees himself as the leader of the world in which he belongs while, at the same time, he feels too big for it. He therefore believes that he can get away with almost anything.

One of his latest provocations is reserved for the media, when asking a question or soliciting a comment on a subject, an article, something that requires a response. No other big company in the world, no other CEO would indulge in this latest whim.

As part of an article on a report that the billionaire has slashed Twitter's valuation, TheStreet sent a request for comment to the platform, to inquire whether this information was accurate. It is the general journalistic rule, when writing an article, to reach out to the parties that are mentioned in it.

Within a minute of sending the request, TheStreet received a response that boils down to an emoji. The poop emoji.

Nothing else.

A Special Treatment for Journalists

A few days ago, Musk warned that the poop emoji would be the automatic response anyone will receive whenever they write to the Twitter media inquiries email address. At the time, the message seemed to be some kind of joke. But, the tech mogul has kept his promise.

"[email protected] now auto responds with