Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter last month, left-wingers have been absolutely furious. Some Democrats are deactivating their accounts altogether in the hopes of protesting Musk’s acquisition and hurting the platform on his watch.
Others, such as failed comedian Kathy Griffin, are trolling Musk on Twitter and expressing their frustrations loudly and clearly. In the case of Griffin, however, she went beyond merely criticizing Musk or his purchase of Twitter.
In an attempt to troll the new owner of the site, Griffin changed her account name to “Elon Musk.” This subsequently led to the comedian being banned from Twitter altogether.
What to Know About Griffin’s Twitter Ban
Under current Twitter rules, free speech is permitted, but impersonation is not. When Griffin changed her account name to read “Elon Musk,” she also put out tweets designed to appear as though they came from the businessman.
Twitter, under Musk’s ownership, has clearly spoken out about why Griffin was banned. Accounts that impersonate others, without clearly disclaiming themselves to be parodies, will be removed altogether.
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
Before Griffin’s account was totally suspended, it displayed a notice alerting viewers of its “temporarily restricted” status. With this notice was a warning of “unusual activity” coming from Griffin’s “Elon Musk” account before asking Twitter users if they still wanted to see the content.
In an announcement, Musk said there were previously warnings put out regarding account impersonations. Though going forward, there is not going to be any tolerance for this whatsoever.
Musk explained with the arrival of “widespread verification,” agreeing not to impersonate users — barring parody disclaimers — will be a mandatory rule for using Twitter.
Circumventing the Ban?
When Republicans were getting banned from Twitter for murky reasons, Democrats like Griffin had absolutely no issue with it. However, Griffin does not care for being on the receiving end of a Twitter ban.
As a means of circumvention, Griffin resorted to using her deceased mother’s account to get back onto Twitter. The comedian put out various tweets — via her mom’s account — protesting the ban against her and calling to be “freed” from it.
Kathy Griffin tweets #FreeKathy from her deceased mother’s Twitter account after being suspended by Elon Musk. pic.twitter.com/5Q7HoDvbFz
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 7, 2022
Thus far, the account of Griffin’s mother has not yet been suspended. However, this may change, seeing as Griffin too changed the name on this account to read “Elon Musk,” along with using the same profile picture that Musk has on his legitimate account.
