Twitter's Lock On Users With Elon Musk's Name Means A Nazi Ban Is Possible
If you’re on Twitter and you change your unverified account’s display name to Elon Musk, the social media platform will lock you out.
According to numerous reports, Twitter took this step because scammers posing as the Tesla CEO have been attempting to trick people into sending them cryptocurrency. An account with “Elon Musk” in the display name and a photo of him could reply to one of the real Musk’s tweets to make it look like a threaded reply.
“The tweets often take the same formulation: Users are offered a rare chance to get in on the ground floor of a new type of blockchain technology, and all they have to do to get rich quick is fork over some cash in exchange for tokens of a new cryptocurrency they’ve never heard of,” said The Verge.
A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to the publication that in its “continuing efforts to combat spam and malicious activity,” the Elon Musk name-lock emerged in an effort to test “new measures to challenge accounts that use terms commonly associated with spam campaigns.”
Users of locked accounts can get back into their accounts fairly easily. After the lock, Twitter asks users to pass a CAPTCHA test and provide a phone number.
Twitter users have since taken to making fun of the lock in the way that only Twitter can:
twitter users: hey there are real nazis on this site, can y’all do something about that
twitter:
twitter user: *changes their name to elon musk*
twitter: pic.twitter.com/kFoS5gvNQ0— 💐🍃 MILO! 🍃💐 @ 3 DAYS! (@taakitz) July 26, 2018
*pedophiles, harassment, nazis, racist accounts, stolen content*
twitter staff:
*someone changes their account name to "Elon Musk"
twitter: pic.twitter.com/5lJEidQbDT— CharlesMcFatty (@Mister_Faceless) July 28, 2018
Twitter: If You even THINK of Using Elon Musk's Name you're gonna get in big Trouble Mister.
Twitter Users: pic.twitter.com/gT20kbfCx2— May the Carnage Never End (@WuffFluff) July 28, 2018
Apparently Twitter will lock your account if you change your display name to “Elon Musk” yet there’s dudes out here named Hubert not locked up in prison
— Plathanos 🐝🇩🇴 🔜 EVO 2018 (@SavinTheBees) July 26, 2018
i hope twitter doesn’t ban me, the guy who has for very complicated reasons been called by the nickname “elon musk” since i was a child, for referring to myself as my beloved childhood moniker in my display name.
— real elon musk (see: blue check) (@ShutUpAndrosky) July 29, 2018
if you change your twitter display name to “Elon musk” your whole timeline changes into a space theme wtfff
— J (@Jigglyhoe) July 26, 2018
The plan? Legally change your name to Elon Musk and sue Twitter for not letting you use your real name pic.twitter.com/jt8UTXUAw6
— Keifer? I Hardly Know Her (@DannyVegito) July 29, 2018
twitter: will lock accounts if they change their name to elon musk
cut to all of us with our poor impulse control trying to resist the urge to change our display names— rosie (@grxxnman) July 25, 2018
Some Twitter users noted that the lock demonstrates a feature that the platform could use against hate speech or Nazis.
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
the fact that changing your name to elon musk is more important to twitter and considered a much greater offense than than being a literal nazi is pretty fucked up.
— Monique Thebo (@grapholect) July 30, 2018
Twitter just locked my account when I changed my screen name to include the words "elon musk" and I had to prove I wasn't a bot to get it back which means they have the algorithms and tech to remove Nazis automatically thank you enjoy your evening.
— Elon Musk, Dumb as Fusk🌹 (@waleetacanon) July 30, 2018
A Twitter spokesperson told HuffPost on Monday that “as part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we’re continuing to fight spam and other malicious behaviors on our service.”
“This is an evolving challenge. As such, we’re rapidly developing our response to be more agile and effective in detecting these behaviors and enforcing our policies ― particularly as it relates to deceptive cryptocurrency accounts in violation of our spam rules.”
In addition to Twitter, social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube ― and most recently even Spotify ― have been under fire for the content they ban and the content they allow. In the last week, Facebook and YouTube saw no problem with Alex Jones’ page after the widely discredited conspiracy theorist threatened special counsel Robert Mueller with death and said Mueller is covering up sex crimes.
This story has been updated with a statement from Twitter to HuffPost.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.