A number of people have now had their accounts suspended for mimicking other people, most notably Musk, on his social media site.
His announcement is the latest eye-catching action taken by the billionaire since he officially took over at Twitter in late October and it’s become an almost daily occurrence that Musk upsets the Twitter masses.
On Sunday, some users gained hundreds of thousands of likes, retweets and comments for tweeting sarcastic and ironic comments, with Elon Musk as their screen names, and using his display picture. Not long afterwards, many had their accounts suspended.
One of the first tweets to go viral was sent by the account @ChrisWarcraft, which belongs to former NFL player Chris Kluwe, though he had Musk’s screen name and image. He tweeted on Friday: “There is nothing better than waking up and enjoying a fresh, steaming cup of my own urine.”
He goes on to talk about the supposed scientific benefits of drinking urine. Many have now shared screenshots online of @ChrisWarcraft’s suspended account.
Users @ejwillingham, @iamsimonyoung, @jephjacques and @arb, were previously all verified accounts who were also suspended for impersonating and mocking Musk.
The world’s richest man stated on Sunday that going forwards, “any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.”
Previously accounts received warnings but Musk said this would no longer be the case.
Nevertheless a Twitter account previously belonging to Ethan Klein has been suspended despite him seemingly making it clear that he was a “parody account.”
“Ghislaine Maxwell is an extremely decent woman who I had the pleasure of meeting several years ago,” Klein wrote, finishing his tweet with the hashtag #FreeGhislaine.
From screenshots available online, it seems he also tweeted about Musk allegedly missing Jeffrey Epstein.
The tweets include an image of Musk posing next to Maxwell, which is often shared online. Klein’s Twitter account @h3h3productions has been suspended, although there has been no official reason to explain why this action has been taken.
Comedian Cathy Griffin also mimicked Musk before having her account suspended too.
Musk himself weighed in on the situation and wrote that: “She was suspended for impersonating a comedian.”
He continued: “But if she really wants her account back, she can have it. For $8.”
This refers to Musk’s recent introduction of an $8 a month charge for a blue check mark.
Adding to his tweet about parody accounts, Musk also confirmed that any name change on an account will cause a “temporary loss of verified checkmark.”
While many high-profile accounts are being suspended, there are some Twitter users who have managed to stay on the site despite mimicking Musk.
The verified Twitter user @soniasaraiya is using the screen name “not elon musk” and tweeting comments like “twitter politely asked me to step down as ceo” and “i have a great sense of humor.”
She also shared screenshots from people messaging her, seemingly thinking that she was the real Musk.
Newsweek has reached out to Twitter for comment.
