Musk Follow Tracker — Issue #14: The Aggregator Purge and the IPO Circle
Issue #14: On May 26, Musk unfollowed two of X's biggest content aggregators — Ian Miles Cheong and Mario Nawfal — within 53 minutes of each other, on the same day X's product head publicly called out Nawfal for content theft. Hours earlier he followed American Airlines CEO Robert Isom (Starlink deal in progress) and the day before had followed former xAI CRO Jon Shulkin and SpaceX's self-declared #1 value-add shareholder Duncan Penn. The purge and the IPO-adjacent follows landed in the same 48-hour window, 16 days before the SpaceX roadshow.
On May 26, Elon Musk dropped two of X's most prolific aggregators in the span of 53 minutes and added the American Airlines CEO hours earlier. The same day, he had quietly followed two people closely tied to SpaceX's upcoming IPO. Five moves, two themes, and a narrow window that reads less like social media housekeeping and more like a priority statement.
The purge: Ian Miles Cheong and Mario Nawfal, gone together
BigTechAlert logged two Musk unfollows in quick succession on May 26 UTC:
- @ianmiles (Ian Miles Cheong) — 20:11 UTC
- @MarioNawfal (Mario Nawfal) — 21:04 UTC
Ian Miles Cheong is a Malaysian commentator based between Dubai and Tokyo, best known for posting a high volume of politically charged commentary aimed at US and European audiences. He has 1.26 million followers and contributes to Rebel News and the Daily Caller. 3
Mario Nawfal describes himself as hosting the "largest show on X." He has 3.53 million followers, leads IBC Group (a crypto consulting firm), and has turned rapid-fire news aggregation into a full-time X business.
The timing is not coincidental. Three days before these unfollows, X's head of product Nikita Bier publicly named Nawfal as a chronic content thief — singling out a specific reuploaded video, flagging a community note that called him out, and warning that his revenue had already been cut 90% with "no room to reduce more." Bier's post was dated May 23. 4
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Cheong's own response landed at 08:14 UTC on May 26 — 12 hours before Musk unfollowed him. He wrote: "This is literally what I've always been doing. I find videos, comment on them, credit the original creator without removing their watermark... It would be nice if we had clear guidelines on content use on X." The framing reads as defensive; the community note on the post disagrees. 5
Both accounts built large followings primarily by aggregating viral clips and commentary from other creators — the exact behavior X is now penalizing. Musk following them in the first place was itself a signal about the kind of content he amplified. The unfollow on the same day as Nikita Bier's crackdown plays out in real time confirms the policy has ownership at the top.
For market context: Musk's unfollows of aggregators don't move stocks. But the platform policy they represent has direct implications for revenue-share economics on X, which feeds into xAI's subscription pitch to enterprise clients and ultimately into the SpaceX IPO narrative.
The follow: Robert Isom and the Starlink seat at the table
At 20:35 UTC — 24 minutes after the @ianmiles unfollow and 29 minutes before @MarioNawfal — BigTechAlert logged a new follow: @RobertIsom_, CEO of American Airlines. 6
Robert Isom has led American Airlines since 2022. The airline is in an active and public evaluation of its in-flight WiFi strategy. American has an existing Starlink deal for 500+ narrow-body Airbus aircraft — but separately, Isom confirmed to Bloomberg that the carrier has held talks with Amazon about its Kuiper satellite service as a potential alternative for some of the fleet. 7
Delta chose Amazon Kuiper over Starlink — a decision that irritated Musk publicly. American's position is more ambiguous, and Isom is actively deciding. Following the person who is deciding where hundreds of Airbus planes get their WiFi — while that decision is still open — is a low-cost form of attention.
The earlier follows: two SpaceX IPO adjacencies
Before the May 26 action, BigTechAlert had caught two earlier follows that the Issue #13 window didn't capture:
@DuncanPenn (Duncan Penn) — 00:54 UTC May 25
Duncan Penn's Twitter profile reads simply "Investor / Space Enthusiast." His account has 25,600 followers. But two days before Musk followed him, Penn posted: "Pretty cool. SpaceX just informed us we were the #1 value-add shareholder for 2025/26 — we drove more revenue and intros than any other shareholder on the cap table. We're not employees. Just long-term investors and friends who believe deeply in the mission." 8
His feed also retweeted the All-In Pod's Chamath segment laying out the case for SpaceX at a $2 trillion valuation, and has consistently promoted Starlink commercial deals. Penn appears to be a network node in the SpaceX IPO ecosystem — someone who generates introductions, not headlines.
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@jon (Jon Shulkin) — 02:26 UTC May 25
The handle @jon belongs to Jon Shulkin. Until recently, Shulkin was xAI's chief revenue officer and a partner at Valor Equity Partners, Antonio Gracias's fund and one of the largest long-term backers of SpaceX and Tesla. Bloomberg reported in May 2026 that Shulkin stepped back from his CRO role and moved into an advisory position ahead of the SpaceX IPO. 9
Shulkin spent months pitching Grok to Apollo Global, Morgan Stanley, and other Wall Street firms — positioning xAI's revenue as a proof point for SpaceX's valuation. His tweets show someone still deep in that effort: he built a live Cubs app using Grok Build during a baseball game and got 610,000 views on the post. He's not gone from the orbit; he's just changed roles within it. 10
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@ddueri0 — unresolved
BigTechAlert flagged one more new follow at 22:34 UTC May 26: @ddueri0. The account has no public footprint traceable from available sources. Its BigTechAlert signal shows the follow but no profile information is indexed. Flagged as unresolved pending further identification.
11The full count and pattern
| Event | Handle | Time (UTC) | Signal tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| New follow | @DuncanPenn (SpaceX #1 shareholder) | May 25 00:54 | High — IPO ecosystem |
| New follow | @jon (Jon Shulkin, former xAI CRO) | May 25 02:26 | High — IPO/xAI |
| New follow | @RobertIsom_ (American Airlines CEO) | May 26 20:35 | Medium — Starlink deal |
| Unfollow | @ianmiles (Ian Miles Cheong) | May 26 20:11 | Platform policy signal |
| Unfollow | @MarioNawfal (Mario Nawfal) | May 26 21:04 | Platform policy signal |
| New follow | @ddueri0 | May 26 22:34 | Unresolved |
Net count: from ~1,343 to ~1,345. Issue #8 ghost unfollow remains open.
The two unfollows and three confirmed follows don't form a single theme. They form two: X's platform cleaning itself up on Musk's apparent endorsement, and Musk adding three people who either hold equity stakes in SpaceX, have been selling xAI to finance, or are deciding between Starlink and Amazon for their airline's WiFi. The SpaceX IPO price range publishes June 1–5. Roadshow starts June 8. The follow cluster timing isn't subtle.
References
- 1BigTechAlert — @elonmusk no longer following @ianmiles
- 2BigTechAlert — @elonmusk no longer following @MarioNawfal
- 3Ian Miles Cheong profile — Times of India
- 4X is cracking down on content thieves — Business Insider
- 5Ian Miles Cheong tweet on content policy, May 26
- 6BigTechAlert — @elonmusk started following @RobertIsom_
- 7American Airlines picks Starlink for Airbus Wi-Fi — AeroTime
- 8Duncan Penn tweet on SpaceX shareholder recognition, May 24
- 9Musk's xAI races to get Wall Street firms to use Grok — Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance
- 10Jon Shulkin (@jon) tweet — Cubs app built with Grok Build
- 11BigTechAlert — @elonmusk started following @ddueri0
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