Did Anonymous Really Threaten Elon Musk Over Bitcoin Manipulation?

A threatening video by ‘Anonymous' — an international hacking collective — targeting Elon Musk, has garnered more than a 20 lakh views within a couple of days of being posted. “You may think you are the smartest person in the world, but now you have met your match. We are anonymous, we are legion”, were the concluding remarks of the narrator. The reason? The internet-based team of the group said that they planned to target the Tesla and SpaceX CEO for influencing the cryptocurrency market far too often and easily through his tweets.

Soon after the video was released, people on the internet, especially on Twitter, wondered if this message for Musk (watch video) was really from the infamous group.

@YourAnonNews, one of the biggest accounts of Anonymous, denied releasing the video and instead directed users to @BscAnon, another anonymous account with nearly 15,000 followers.

“While we offer our many new #Crypto and #Bitcoin followers all the best in their ongoing spat with @ElonMusk, we believe the account you seek is @BscAnon. (who is not @YourAnonNews)," @YourAnonNews tweeted.

@BscAnon was the next to deny that they were behind the “threats” to Musk. "That is not our video to Elon Musk for the record," @BscAnon tweeted.

But a third Anonymous account, which goes by the name @YourAnonCentral, tweeted the YouTube link to the video message. The account has 5.7 million followers on Twitter. "It appears that your quest to save the world is more rooted in a superiority and saviour complex than it is in actual concern for humanity," it said, quoting the narrator in the video.

In its video message, the anonymous appeared extremely miffed with Musk due to the power he wields over the cryptocurrency market.

"Reading the comments on your Twitter posts, it seems that the games you have played with the crypto markets have destroyed lives," Anonymous said. "Millions of retail investors were really counting on their crypto gains to improve their lives. This is something that you will never understand because you were born into the stolen wealth of a South African apartheid emerald mine and have no clue what struggle is like for most of the working people in the world," the group said addressing Musk.

The group acknowledged that people who invested in crypto did that of their accord "but your Tweets this week show a clear disregard for the average working person."

"As hardworking people have their dreams liquidated over your public temper tantrums, you continue to mock them with memes from one of your million-dollar mansions," it said.

While no Anonymous account, barring @YourAnonCentral that shared the message on its handle, has claimed responsibility, others pointed out that this doesn't mean that the hacker's collective isn't involved, or won't get involved.

Musk, a cryptocurrency enthusiast, tweets about the digital assets almost on a daily basis and has even referred to himself as "Dogefather" in the past. Of late, the billionaire has tweeted more and more about Dogecoin, the Shiba Inu dog-themed digital currency that started as a meme joke. Dogecoin price in India has spiked following endorsement by Musk and other celebrities.

On Thursday, Musk once again made a cryptic tweet that many interpreted as the billionaire's breakup with the cryptocurrency, which had a direct impact on Bitcoin price in INR. The tweet included the Bitcoin logo and a broken-heart emoji.