Elon Musk has banned Twitter handles that impersonate others unless “clearly” marked as parody, the Twitter boss announced Sunday.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk tweeted.
Musk took the new policy seriously, as Kathy Griffin’s account was temporarily restricted after she and an onslaught of celebrities changed their display name to “Elon Musk” in protest of the Tesla CEO’s control over the social media platform.
Though “One Day at a Time” actress Valerie Bertinelli and “Roswell” star Brendan Fehr also participated in the trend, it appears they avoided suspension by changing back their names in a timely manner.
“We are no longer all Elon Musk… … cause he locked those accounts,” Fehr wrote Sunday morning. “But don’t worry, he’s still perfectly fine with anyone tweeting lies and irresponsible conspiracies so all’s good and makes sense.”
Bertinelli also switched back her profile Sunday morning, tweeting “Okey-dokey I’ve had my fun and I think I made my point. I’m just not a ‘trending’ kind of gal. Never have been, never want to be.”
Musk also clarified that moving forward accounts will not receive a warning before they are suspended, marking another change from the social media platform’s previous regime.
“Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning,” he wrote. “This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue.”
In fact, “any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark,” according to Musk.
Despite initially launching the new Twitter Blue $7.99 per month subscription Saturday, the New York Times reported Sunday Twitter will delay its new blue check subscription rollout until after Tuesday’s midterms amid concerns of election misinformation that would be caused by the new plan.