The comic Kathy Griffin’s account was suspended on Sunday, making her the most recent victim of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.
After changing her username to Musk, Griffin, 62, appeared to be immediately removed from the social media platform.
Despite the fact that her handle displayed the name “Elon Musk” in contrast to her blue checkmark, this violates the company’s anti-impersonation policy.
Just weeks after formally acquiring Twitter for $44 billion after months of legal fighting, the founder of SpaceX demonstrated that he was taking his “Chief Tweet” role seriously by addressing phony accounts.
He said on Sunday night, “Moving forward, any Twitter handles engaged in impersonation without explicitly declaring ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.
“Prior to rolling out widespread verification, we used to offer a warning before suspension; going forward, there won’t be a warning. This will be stated explicitly as a requirement for joining Twitter Blue.”
Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.
This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022
The simple blue mark was previously used to verify government accounts, notable figures, politicians, journalists and other vetted users.
“Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark,” he added in the series of tweets.
The overhaul is designed in efforts to pay off company debt. Of Twitter’s nearly 237 million users, less than 450,000 accounts currently have the blue check mark symbols.
Workers who claimed the layoffs broke the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which calls for 60 days’ notice for employees, filed a class-action complaint against the corporation.
