Twitter CEO Elon Musk announces via tweet that messages to the company’s press email (press@twitter.com), which have gone unanswered for months, would now receive a “💩” (poop emoji) in an automatic reply.

When Musk took over the social media platform in late October 2022, following a $44 billion deal, Twitter’s press team effectively stopped replying to emails. This was not unprecedented as Musk, who has a history of hostility towards journalists, got rid of Tesla’s press department back in 2020.

This isn't the first time the billionaire has used the poop emoji as a response, which prompts the British newspaper The Guardian to pose the question in its coverage of the new policy:

“Why, exactly, does a 51-year-old man appear to be stuck in Freud’s anal stage?“