WASHINGTON (AFP) – Elon Musk adopted the moniker ‘Kekius Maximus’ on X on Tuesday, sparking speculation among his 210 million followers about his mysterious new handle that is a mash-up of an alt-right symbol, a memecoin, and the lead character of the movie Gladiator.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and a confidant of US President-elect Donald Trump, also replaced his profile picture with one of Pepe the Frog, a popular cartoon character, wearing ancient Roman attire and holding a video game joystick.
In typical Musk fashion, the billionaire tech mogul and owner of X – formerly Twitter – offered no explanation about the new username and avatar, but the move triggered immediate ripple effects.
The change roiled the cryptocurrency world, sending the value of a memecoin – a digital currency inspired by an Internet meme – with the same name skyrocketing.
It also sent Internet sleuths hunting for answers: Was the name change just for the laughs? Was there a hidden message? Was this another thinly-disguised attempt to jolt the crypto markets? More troublingly, was it a wink and a nod to online hate groups?
Musk and X did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
His new handle appears to be a blend of “Maximus Decimus Meridius” – a Roman general played by Russell Crowe in the 2000 smash hit Gladiator – and ‘kek’, an expression popular among the alt-right and Internet trolls that is used as a variation of ‘LOL’, or laugh out loud.
‘Kek’ is also a reference to a ‘virtual white nationalist deity,’ the non-profit Southern Poverty Law Centre told AFP, adding that Roman male images have been used by white nationalist groups such as Identity Evropa.
Pepe the Frog was originally a cartoon character from the Boy’s Club comic series, but during Trump’s first presidential campaign it became associated with the alt-right and white supremacists, with the Anti-Defamation League dubbing it a ‘hate symbol’.