Ban

The celebrity CEO, has had a number of usernames on his platform, which could be used to mock him, preemptively banned.

Elon Musk

Twitter

Twitter Bans Accounts Mocking ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk

Days after Elon Musk declared that “comedy is now legal on Twitter,” the platform banned several comedians for parody tweets in which they impersonated its new owner.

Among the suspended accounts were comic Kathy Griffin and internet personality Ethan Klein, who both had verified “blue check” accounts.

“Yes, I could have ended world hunger instead of buying Twitter,” wrote Klein to his 2.3 million followers, after changing his username to “Elon Musk” and his profile picture to a depiction of the billionaire. “But people don’t understand the importance of having a free and open forum. If somebody dies of starvation in Sudan, it won’t affect the world. But being able to say the N-word on Twitter is a right we all deserve.” Shortly after the tweet was posted, Klein’s account was suspended.

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, addressed the wave of impersonations late Sunday night. “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” he wrote. “Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.”

The suspensions came just days before Musk was set to make the blue “verified” checkmark —which previously made it clear that an account was genuine—available to anybody who pays a subscription fee of $8 per month. Musk, who has described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” said account holders that do not pay for the privilege of verification will appear below paid accounts in search results and replies. – Source