Elon Musk said Twitter will permanently suspend any account that impersonates someone else — unless it makes it clear it’s a “parody.”
The new owner of the social media platform has issued a warning after some celebrities changed their Twitter display names (instead of their account names) to “Elon Musk” in response to the billionaire’s decision to pay $8 a month to All users provide verified accounts.
Comedian Kathy Griffin suspended her account on Sunday for changing her display name to Musk’s.
Actor Valerie Bertinelli did the same before changing back to her real name. But first, she posted a series of tweets in support of the Democratic candidate.
Comedian Sarah Silverman also appeared to have her account locked after she shared a screenshot of her Twitter page showing the name “Sarah K Silverman.”
Musk said Twitter had previously issued a warning before the suspension, but as the social media giant rolled out broad verification, there would be no warning and no “exceptions.”
“This will be clearly identified as a condition of signing up for Twitter Blue,” Musk said, adding that any name change would result in a temporary loss of the verified checkmark.
On Saturday, Twitter updated its app in the Apple App Store to start charging $8 for the popular blue check verification mark, Musk’s first major revision to the social media platform.
Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk said last month that the social media platform would form a content moderation committee with “broad views”.
“No major content decisions or account recovery will occur until this committee meets,” he added.
On the topic of banned accounts, Musk said last week that they won’t be allowed back to Twitter until the social media platform “has a clear process for doing so.”
Creating such a process would take at least a few weeks, Musk wrote on Twitter, shedding more light on the potential return of Twitter’s most famous banned user, former U.S. President Donald Trump.
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The new schedule means Trump won’t be able to return in time for the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
Earlier on Sunday, The New York Times reported that Twitter was delaying the rollout of verification checkmarks to subscribers
Its new service will follow Tuesday’s midterm elections.