Since the start of 2025, something in the tech world has changed that is virtually impossible to ignore: the topics that Elon Musk posts about on X.
The Tesla (TSLA) CEO became one of the world’s most potent influencers by posting on Twitter (now X) long before he purchased the platform.
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But since he began his new position heading the so-called U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk’s X posts have switched from centering around his companies to focusing on DOGE’s work and other government-related matters.
This week, DOGE is in full focus after federal government staffers received an email from the Office of Personal Management (OPM), the federal government’s human resources (HR) agency, leaving many unsure how to respond. But across social media, many people haven’t hesitated to make their feelings known or take matters into their own hands.
Social media users are taking action after a poll from Elon Musk has led to federal government staffers receiving a threatening email (Photo by Aytug Can Sencar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
An email from HR is having unintended consequences for Elon Musk and DOGE
A lot of the work DOGE is doing on Capitol Hill has involved either eliminating government employees or incentivizing them to quit. Despite accusations that such measures are illegal, Musk doesn’t seem deterred.
On February 23, Musk posed a question to his social media following, seemingly one of his favorite ways of gathering data: “Should all federal employees be required to send a short email with some basic bullet points about what they accomplished last week?”
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After more than 70% of respondents voted yes, Musk took action. Federal employees quickly received an email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requesting precisely that. Musk later posted on X that failure to respond to the email would be “taken as a resignation.”
While the federal staffers who received the email considered their options, news of what they had been sent began trending on social media. More specifically, the address from which OPM sent the email started trending, as did the fact that anyone could send mail to it
The [email protected] email account does not reject non-government email addresses. Go ahead and tell Elon your worth, America
— Liam Nissan™ (@theliamnissan) February 23, 2025
It didn’t take long for users across Reddit RDDT, Meta Platform’s META Threads, and Bluesky to start sending humorous responses to the OPM email address and encouraging their fellow users to do the same in an attempt to annoy Musk and highlight the absurdity of his request.
As TechCrunch reports, “This is a common tactic of online resistance when something like a controversial form for public comment or email address gets out.”
This online retaliatory tactic is popular and has already proven effective.
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In April 2023, the Missouri Attorney General’s office removed a transgender reporting hotline after angry social media users spammed it with consistent nonsensical emails, including irreverent fanfiction and the entire script of the 2007 film Bee Movie, a popular film among the transgender community.
AI is helping the social media community send Musk a message
Screenshots of the responses that social media users are sending to OPM email addresses are also trending on X, many of which are aimed at poking fun at Musk himself. It likely isn’t hard to come up with witty responses, but thanks to AI, it seems to have gotten even more straightforward.
One Threads user shared a link to a tool made with ChatGPT titled “What I Did Last Week,” which allows anyone to generate a custom response to the question posed in the original email.
Related: Federal staffers send a clear message to Elon Musk
Since the email went out, the OPM has informed government agency leaders that their workers are not required to respond to Musk’s email, despite what he has claimed, confirming that a lack of response will not be considered a resignation.
Federal government staffers have previously used Reddit to make it clear that they do not intend to resign despite Musk’s attacks. As of now, it remains unclear how he is handling the social media response.
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