On Sunday, the comedian Kathy Griffin had her Twitter account suspended after changing the name of her page to “Elon Musk” and making fun of the new CEO.
It wasn’t clear if the suspension was temporary or if her mocking had caused it. It coincided with Musk’s announcement that accounts that imitate famous people and other prominent figures would be banned unless they are designated as “parody.”
Impersonation has long been prohibited by Twitter policy, but this new quick action is novel.
Although he claims to be a “free speech absolutist,” Musk would seem to be the biggest benefit of his approach. There were few instances of impersonation bans that weren’t classified as “parody.”
They include a user whose page impersonated right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo, who urged Musk to act personally, and a user whose page mocked Musk’s “parody” policy by posing as actor Keanu Reeves.
Recent days have seen a flood of Twitter users change their page names to his and post messages criticizing his libertarian viewpoint and leadership of the network, which he now owns after orchestrating a $44 billion acquisition.
Griffin urged Americans to support Democrats in Tuesday’s midterm elections in order to protect abortion rights through her “Elon Musk” account on Sunday.
She wrote as Musk, “I’ve determined that voting blue for their choice is just right.”
Requests for response were not immediately answered by Griffin’s spokespeople or the Twitter PR team.
After criticizing Twitter’s content moderation and announcing a new era of free expression, Musk has come under fire for his poor start as its CEO. Some people were worried that former President Donald Trump, who was expelled for allegedly inciting his supporters to invade the U.S. Capitol in a violent manner on January 6, 2021, would be permitted to reenter.
In addition, he swiftly slashed the size of the Twitter workforce, which was set to be cut by 3,700 workers, to almost half, reducing the company’s capacity to track misinformation and propaganda. In the previous seven years, falsehoods and deceptive memes on social media have tainted American elections.
After learning that some of the fired workers would be required to implement some of Musk’s new plans, Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Twitter is attempting to rehire some of the individuals. Two anonymous persons familiar with the company’s personnel situation served as the basis for Bloomberg’s claim.
Only three days after assuming control of Twitter with the intention of promoting free speech while policing misinformation, Elon Musk tweeted an entirely untrue report about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, with the remark “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.”
Many of Musk’s famous users were enraged by his proposal to charge $8 per month for verified accounts for just about everyone, from VIPs to the average citizen, who loved the status associated with having the site’s iconic blue check mark on their pages.
Many people seem to have changed their page names to Elon Musk as a result of this, in part. The accounts appeared to be his by using the images he uses on his page, except their handles and URLs.
Sarah Silverman, a comedian, tweeted on Sunday that her account had been suspended several times since Musk took charge on October 27.
She joined the Musk impersonator craze by tweeting under his identity, “I am freedom of expression absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast every single day.”
