These Elon Musk Parody Accounts Prove That Twitter Can't Ban Tesla's Trolls
Twitter has come under fire in recent months from everyone from Seth Rogen to journalists for refusing to intervene in the spreading of misinformation and propaganda by alt-Right accounts on one side, and “shadow banning” certain political views on the other. But the platform has come to the rescue of the internet’s friendly, neighborhood billionaire, Elon Musk.
Twitter users began discovering over the weekend that simply using Musk’s name in your public name results in a locked account.
If you put "Elon Musk" in your handle, the very next Twitter screen you click to will be a notice that your account has been locked.
They have the technology to clamp down on Nazis using Nazi buzzwords to organize. They could do that. They chose not to. pic.twitter.com/diDjfW1DpG— April Daniels (@1aprildaniels) July 29, 2018
Why would one of the most powerful social media corporations crack down on one seemingly insignificant issue afflicting one very powerful person?
The official reasoning is that Twitter wants to combat spam and malicious activity, and in the case of Musk, there are bots who use his name and reply to his tweets trying to scam followers into buying fake cryptocurrency. Which, to be fair, has been observed by Musk fans and detractors alike.
But there are bots everywhere on Twitter, not just in Musk’s replies. Another possibility is that Twitter wanted to address the hilarious parody account plaguing Musk. It’s not too much of a logical leap to wonder if this is really about Italian Elon Musk and its many copycats.
you, a fool: french elon musk isn't that funny
me, an intellectual: I didn't even like italian elon musk that much
someone who doesn't spend 10 hours of every day on twitter dot com: what the fuck are you even talking about— Olive (@olivebrinker) July 29, 2018
If you haven’t run across fake Elon Musks on your timeline, you may not recognize the, ahem, severity, of Musk’s parody problem.
The Musk meme began with Alex Arbuckle, a formerly verified Twitter user who renamed his account “Italian Elon Musk” and tweeted some pretty humorous gems before getting stripped of his blue checkmark.
[when I get my verified checkmark removed by Twitter for doing a bit where Elon Musk is Italian] ayyyy whoopsy daisy
— alex (@alexqarbuckle) June 17, 2018
The following are a few tweets Musk may have seen and taken offense with:
I love a my employee Sal, he spinna da dough like a no one else!! I had a to fire him because a he ask for a raise!! I say Sal, donna you have enough dough already? Prego!!
— alex (@alexqarbuckle) June 17, 2018
I send a the calzone into space!! I don’t pay a the taxes!! Ohhh!!
— alex (@alexqarbuckle) June 16, 2018
THATS A SPICY MEATBALL!!!! no refundo https://t.co/VEnHMlFZWB
— alex (@alexqarbuckle) June 16, 2018
Of course, it was probably more amusing for most when Arbuckle’s profile was a badly photoshopped picture of Musk with some stereotypical Italian objects, and his name was literally “Italian Elon Musk,” but you get the point.
Italian Elon Musk.
Arbuckle returned to his regularly scheduled comedy posts, but another brave warrior picked up the torch with French Élon Musque, which seemingly tricks Twitter’s Musk name recognition system. The teen behind the parody account tweeted voraciously for a bit, but is now losing steam.
ze homeless man on ze street ask me “please monsieur musk spare some change my family is dying” i tell him “have you heard of ze hyperloop”
— French Élon Musque (@FMusque) July 28, 2018
i will marry grimes in le thai cave and leave her down zere for 2 weeks to be rezcued by my Tesla™️ Submarine
— French Élon Musque (@FMusque) July 27, 2018
i hate ze poor
— French Élon Musque (@FMusque) July 27, 2018
The problem with Twitter’s move to ban Musk impersonators is two-fold: one, it’s a seemingly insignificant problem whose solution requires questionable limitations on speech, and two, it’s going to be impossible to continually execute. The parody accounts that have survived all have workarounds, like adding extra letters and accent marks.
i made a fake elon musk accnt called “cool elon musk,” tweeted “just watched 500 days of summer” and it was immediately blocked lmao
— jaboukie young-white (@jaboukie) July 29, 2018
Fortunately, internet historians have the trusty screenshot to preserve this online moment of Musk roasting until our hard drives turn to dust and the cloud dissipates.
Photos via Twitter