Elon Musk is cracking down on unlabeled parody accounts on Twitter after several users, including comedians, modified their verified Twitter profiles to pretend to be Musk himself.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk said in a tweet on Sunday.
“Previously, we issued a warning before suspension,” he added, “but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.”
The change is already rankling some users, especially since Musk has said he acquired Twitter to prioritize free speech. Over a week ago, Twitter’s new owner even tweeted: “Comedy is now legal on Twitter.”
But on Sunday, Musk showed he was serious about the crackdown when Twitter suspended the accounts of the comedians Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman for changing their verified Twitter profiles to match Elon Musk’s profile. The comedians then proceeded to lob insults as Musk, including: “I am a freedom of speech absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast every day.”
SIlverman was temporarily suspended while Griffin’s account was permanently shut down. Griffin is now using her deceased mother’s Twitter account to fire back at Musk. Twitter has also permanently suspended cartoonist Jeph Jacques after he posted several tweets posing as Musk.
Despite the crackdown, Musk said protecting free speech still remains his priority for Twitter. “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” he tweeted on Monday.
Nevertheless, Musk is still faced with the difficult task of striking a balance between free speech and stamping out misinformation, all the while making enough revenue to keep Twitter afloat financially. His latest plan involving “widespread verification” will allow any paying user to buy a blue verified checkmark for $8 per month.
How Twitter will stop fraudsters and hackers from abusing the same function is less clear. But Musk’s decision to crack down on Twitter account impersonation is designed to act as safeguard, even though it comes at the cost of unlabeled parody accounts.
“Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark,” Musk added in another tweet.