Elon Musk claims he's deleting his Twitter account

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Elon Musk says he's deleting his Twitter account 10 months after his use of the social media site landed him in trouble with U.S. regulators.

The Tesla CEO changed his Twitter display name to Daddy DotCom on Father's Day. Daddy.com is an existing website that provides parenting information to new and expecting fathers.

Musk got in trouble with the Securities & Exchange Commission in August for tweets about taking the company private and saying he had secured funding to do so with no evidence to back that up. Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million in to settle with the SEC.

As part of a court settlement, Musk is required to have Twitter posts approved by a company lawyer if they have the potential to affect the company's stock. While Musk remains CEO of the electric car company, the settlement also required him to relinquish his role as chairman for at least three years.

Musk got into some trouble in February, when he sent a tweet projecting that Tesla would make about 500,000 cars this year. About 4 1/2 hours after that tweet, Musk corrected his statement, saying he meant that Tesla had started to make cars at a weekly clip that would translate into 500,000 cars during a yearlong period, but not necessarily for calendar 2019.

Tesla Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.