Elon Musk warns new Twitter account suspension policy will permanently ban accounts engaging in impersonation

Following a tumultuous takeover, Elon Musk is making widespread changes to Twitter as a company and as a social platform. Recently, Musk fired a large number of employees, including executives at the top of the food chain most notably the previous CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk cited the platform losing US$4 million/day as a reason for the mass layoffs. Furthermore, to make Twitter more financially stable, Musk has introduced an US$8/month Twitter Blue subscription that would be the only way to get the much-coveted verification checkmark.

Naturally, many people aren’t happy with these changes. Some like Kathy Griffin, a comedian with a verified account, have taken to changing their account names to “Elon Musk”, as a satirical way to demonstrate the fault of charging money for verification. To curb this practice, Musk has announced that “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended”. It appears the policy is already in effect as Kathy Griffin’s Twitter page has been banned.

In marked contrast to the old policy, user accounts who are found in violation of the new rules will be terminated without any warning. Per Musk, the lack of any warning before a permanent termination is due to the rollout of mass verification in the form of Twitter Blue.

Finally, people who change their account name will lose the verified status temporarily.

It is a volatile period for Twitter as a social platform. Only time will tell how well the new rules will work for curbing identity theft and whether users will sign up for Twitter Blue en masse.

Buy Twitter For Dummies 3rd Edition on Amazon