That Elon Musk ‘Adrian Dittmann’ screenshot is almost certainly fake

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images

A screenshot that seems to suggest billionaire Elon Musk is cosplaying superfan “Adrian Dittmann” — showing X account permissions beyond that of an ordinary user — is almost certainly fake, a source at X tells The Verge.

The source, who claims no knowledge of Dittmann’s identity, says an image posted to 4chan’s /pol/ board doesn’t reflect an actual interface available to people who work for X. The screenshot was posted by a user who identifies themselves as Adrian Dittmann, showing a post from Musk’s X page. In that screenshot, the X interface includes non-standard links to an “Admin Portal” and a “Bans” page, hinting that the user has special privileges on the site. But the source says neither of these options exist for X employees logged into their accounts. In fact, X employees would see the same interface as other users, with the potential exception of new features currently being trialed for wide release.

This suggests that other elements of the screenshot, like an analytics link that only appears for the author of a post, were also deliberate fabrications, seeded as hints that Musk is secretly Dittmann. The hints were picked up overnight, where they spread on social media alongside other posts made by the 4chan user — mostly ones lauding Musk and defending his X policies amid infighting with other conservatives over immigration.

It’s not clear who posted the screenshots. “Adrian Dittmann” is a longtime X user, and his Musk fandom and vocal similarities have led to long-standing rumors that he’s secretly none other than Musk himself. (Musk has cosplayed his son on the site, so it’s not that far-fetched an assertion.) User Mag’s Taylor Lorenz has noted that Dittmann benefits tremendously from the speculation that they’re Musk, and it’s possible the doctored screenshots are Dittmann leaning into that. The 4chan posts could also be from an unrelated impersonator, though, playing up the idea of Musk as a desperate forum poster. (I guess we can’t rule out that Musk, impersonating Dittmann, added fake elements to an actual screenshot of his X account? But I’m ranking that theory low on the list.)

None of this conclusively disproves a link between Musk and Dittmann, of course. But if Musk isn’t spending his precious free hours on a sockpuppet account, that gives him more time for cozying up to President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, attempting to swing Germany’s upcoming election in favor of the far-right AfD party, and playing Diablo IV.