Twitter Bans Kathy Griffin For Impersonating Elon Musk

November 7, 2022 Business, Social Media

The Insider reports:

Twitter suspended comedian Kathy Griffin’s account on Sunday evening after she jokingly pretended to be Elon Musk on the platform and mocked him in several tweets.

Griffin now joins a range of several celebrities and figures who had their Twitter handles suspended for parodying Musk. A week earlier, the billionaire had declared that “comedy is now legal on Twitter,” after buying the platform.

Griffin had changed her name to “Elon Musk” and copied his profile picture, tweeting: “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.”

The Guardian reports:

Actor Valerie Bertinelli had similarly appropriated Musk’s screen name posting a series of tweets in support of Democratic candidates on Saturday before switching back to her true name. “Okey-dokey. I’ve had fun and I think I made my point,” she tweeted afterwards.

Bertinelli noted the original purpose of the blue verification checkmark. It was granted free of charge to people whose identity Twitter had confirmed; with journalists accounting for a big portion of recipients.

“It simply meant your identity was verified. Scammers would have a harder time impersonating you,” Bertinelli said. “That no longer applies. Good luck out there!”

The Daily Beast reports:



“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk tweeted Sunday evening. The mogul added that while users previously received a warning before suspension, moving forward “there will be no warning.”

Celebrities such as Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman, and Mad Men star Rich Sommer quickly had their accounts removed for changing their usernames and photos to match Musk’s.

After Griffin’s suspension, Musk joked that she had been banned “for impersonating a comedian.” “But if she really wants her account back, she can have it,” he wrote in a pair of follow-up tweets. “For $8.”

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