Elon Musk Suspends Twitter Accounts Parodying Him, Says 'Impersonation' Will Not Be Tolerated
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A bit ironic, considering Musk cited his support of free speech as one reason he bought the social media site.
Elon Musk is continually changing the rules after taking over Twitter, and now he's mass banning accounts parodying him.
On Oct. 28, Musk tweeted, "Comedy is now legal on Twitter," but apparently not when he's the butt of the joke.
Soon after, many accounts changed their display name and profile picture to the same as Musk's and began tweeting various things.
A few celebrities joined in, including comedians Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin and actor Rich Sommer.
While impersonating Musk, Silverman tweeted, "I am a freedom of speech absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast every day," but on Nov. 6, she shared that she'd gotten a notification saying, "Your account has been locked."
Although she was locked out of her account, she has not been suspended.
That was not the case for others who had some fun parodying Musk.
For Sommer, he tweeted, "Okay, time to employ plan b since they're MAKING me keep twitter," followed by, "Does anyone know any advertisers who are, like, kind of 'into' racism NOT ACTUAL RACISTS!! just ad ppl who are, y'know, curious about what it's all about (racism)."
Soon after, his account was suspended.
Speaking with Insider, Sommer said of the parody, "I had absolutely, let me be very clear, no intention of anyone truly believing that I was Elon Musk."
Griffin impersonated Musk and tweeted about voting: "After much spirited discussion with the females in my life, I've decided that voting blue for their choice is only right. (They're also sexy females, btw.) #VoteBlueToProtectWomen." Her account is now suspended as well.
Musk previously called himself a "free speech absolutist," but now he might be threatening free speech on Twitter by censoring accounts and tweets he doesn't agree with.
As the new owner of Twitter, Musk has the right to enact his own rules, which he initially appeared to do in response to the parody accounts, specifying that "impersonation" that isn't outright labeled as "parody" would result in your account being banned.
But soon after, Twitter accounts that followed his new rules were also banned.
Musk tweeted, "Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended." He said, "Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning."
In another reply to his tweet, he added, "Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark."
One person called out the hypocrisy of Musk's actions compared to past statements, tweeting, "So much for free speech I guess ?"
After Musk tweeted the update, another Twitter user highlighted multiple accounts that followed Musk's rules and identified that they were parodies in the display name and bio but were still suspended, including @h3h3productions, @chipzel, and @muskyparody.
In response to criticism over his recent actions, Musk tweeted, "My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk," before stating that "Twitter rules will evolve over time, but they’re currently the following" and linking to the official Twitter page.
As of writing, Musk has given no further response to the mass banning of parody accounts.
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