Ashton Kutcher Tweets Phone Number & Encourages ‘Real People’ To Text Him
Ashton Kutcher sent his 18 million Twitter followers into a frenzy yesterday afternoon when he tweeted a phone number he claimed was his number, before encouraging “real people” to shoot him a message.
“I miss having a real connection w/ real people. My Community. From now on you can just text me. I won’t be able to respond to everyone but at least we can be real w/ each other & I can share the unedited latest & greatest in my world,” the 40-year-old actor tweeted.
According to the screenshot of the since-deleted tweet captured by People, Kutcher added confirmation that the number attached to the tweet was, in fact, his number.
A reporter from Wired joined Ashton’s followers in hesitantly sending a text message to the phone number attached to the tweet, with the hopes of speaking to The Ranch actor. Wired went on to report that if you texted the phone number Ashton gave out, you would have received an automated text message with a link encouraging you to click and sign up for some sort of community.
Between his massive Twitter following and the number of people who took a screenshot and shared the phone number even after Kutcher deleted it, the number of individuals who texted Ashton yesterday is believed to have been pretty high. Wired suspects the number of people who sent a message to the phone number was so high it crashed the system Kutcher was trying to kick off, hence deleting the tweet.
Ashton Kutcher Tweets Out Phone Number, Says He Misses 'Having a Real Connection with Real People' https://t.co/E0yCrijCzw
— People (@people) January 30, 2019
Ashton did take to Twitter again just a few hours after the now-deleted tweet was originally posted to announce that he would re-post because “SMS is a fragile beast.”
The tweet promising a re-post quickly accumulated over 3,000 likes in just 12 hours. Many took to the comments to complain about waiting for the actor to text them back. Some questioned if Ashton’s phone was currently blowing up with text messages. Others admitted they were dying to know just how many people had texted Kutcher.
One user told Ashton in a tweet that he “might be crazy” for tweeting his phone number out to the public as she believed there would absolutely be some people waiting to see what he could do or get for them. However, she also admitted to believing there were likely some “real people” who would love the chance to have a real conversation with him as well.
Unless we're being punk'd, Ashton Kutcher wants you to text him: +1 (319) 519-0576. https://t.co/94MVYQHjXW pic.twitter.com/lKcxjwFIVW
— E! News (@enews) January 30, 2019
While the auto text message did look like a phishing scam, many outlets suspect the actor is attempting to launch his own social media platform.
On Monday, Kutcher did take to Twitter to announce he would be making changes to his “social media strategy” in the near future. However, as those who have followed the actor for a while may know, he is also a notorious prankster and it is possible he was just pulling a prank out of his playbook from the days of Punk’d.
