Elon Musk Suspends Twitter Customers for Impersonating Elon Musk
Ten days after asserting that “comedy is now authorized on Twitter,” new proprietor Elon Musk is uninterested in being a joke. On November sixth, Twitter took disciplinary motion towards a number of customers, together with Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman, after they modified their handles to “Elon Musk.”
The comedians have been two of the numerous Twitter customers to undertake the identify “Elon Musk” after the world’s richest man introduced that Twitter would not confirm politicians, journalists, and different notable folks, however would as an alternative provide a blue checkmark to anybody prepared to pay $8 a month. This modification was made to assist Twitter’s plummeting revenues, however it will additionally remove one of many clearest methods to inform who’s who within the murky world of on-line discourse.
After altering her deal with to Elon Musk, Griffin inspired Twitter customers to take a look at the rival platform, Mastodon, and tweeted (through The Wrap), “After a lot spirited dialogue with the females in my life, I’ve determined that voting blue for his or her alternative is barely proper. (They’re additionally attractive females, btw.) #VoteBlueToProtectWomen.”
Below the identify Elon Musk, Silverman tweeted, “I’m a freedom of speech absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast each day,” Rolling Stone reviews. Her account was solely locked, and is now again beneath her management.
Mad Males actor Wealthy Sommer wasn’t so fortunate. Impersonating Musk, he reportedly tweeted, “Does anybody know any advertisers who’re, like, sort of ‘into’ racism NOT ACTUAL RACISTS!! simply advert ppl who’re, y’know, inquisitive about what it’s all about (racism),” and his account has been suspended.
Because the Musks started to multiply over the weekend, the unique model introduced a sudden shift in Twitter coverage. “Going ahead, any Twitter handles participating in impersonation with out clearly specifying ‘parody’ might be completely suspended,” the “comedy” lover tweeted. “Beforehand, we issued a warning earlier than suspension, however now that we’re rolling out widespread verification, there might be no warning.”
Some impersonators, similar to actress Valerie Bertinelli, modified again their Twitter handles earlier than the suspensions went into impact. Griffin, Silverman, and Sommer didn’t try this. By 6:30 p.m. ET on November sixth, Griffin’s account had been banned — completely, if Musks’ prior tweet was to be believed. Two hours later, Musk took a viral joke circulating on the platform and handed it off as his personal, writing, “Really, she was suspended for impersonating a comic.”
“But when she actually desires her account again, she will be able to have it,” he added, “For $8.” This contradicted his earlier statements about “everlasting suspensions,” and since Twitter’s precise coverage is somewhat imprecise on the purpose, relying closely on the phrase “could,” we’d not know for positive till the subsequent time Musk tweets about it.
Final week, the true Elon Musk (we predict) complained of a “huge drop in income” as advertisers halted spending on the platform. Since then, he’s advised everybody to vote Republican within the November eighth midterm election, and shared a meme with a Nazi soldier, so it’s maybe unsurprising that much more corporations have paused advert buys.
Beforehand, we issued a warning earlier than suspension, however now that we’re rolling out widespread verification, there might be no warning.
This might be clearly recognized as a situation for signing as much as Twitter Blue.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022
Really, she was suspended for impersonating a comic
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Wealthy Sommer is gone now too pic.twitter.com/LN7XYQpgfY
— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) November 7, 2022