Twitter has permanently suspended YouTuber Ethan Klein, co-host of the popular show H3H3, for impersonating Elon Musk. (Read More Here).
He joins comedian Kathy Griffin in the group of people who have been suspended for impersonating the new Twitter leader.
After vowing to make Twitter a bastion of “free speech,” Elon Musk announced a new policy on Sunday that will remove accounts engaging in the type of “impersonation” that comedians and others have used to humorously protest his takeover of the social network in recent days.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk tweeted Sunday evening.The mogul added that while users previously received a warning before suspension, moving forward “there will be no warning.”
Celebrities such as Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman, and Mad Men star Rich Sommer quickly had their accounts removed for changing their usernames and photos to match Musk’s.
As a fake-Musk, Griffin pushed her audience to vote for Democrats in the forthcoming midterm elections. “After much spirited discussion with the females in my life,” the My Life on the D-List star wrote in one tweet, “I’ve decided that voting blue for their choice is only right (They’re also sexy females, btw.)”
After Griffin’s suspension, Musk joked that she had been banned “for impersonating a comedian.”
“But if she really wants her account back, she can have it,” he wrote in a pair of follow-up tweets. “For $8.”
The parody bans follow—and apparently contradict—an Oct. 28 promise from Musk that no “major content decisions” would occur before the formation of “a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.”
On Sunday night Musk posted: “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 claimed that Twitter “needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission. Widespread verification will democratize journalism & empower the voice of the people.”.
Griffin’s account had been temporarily restricted after she impersonated Musk by changing her profile photo to his photo and changing her user name to “Elon Musk,” even though her handle remained as “@kathygriffin.”.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk tweeted. “Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.”
Twitter has explicit rules prohibiting the impersonation of other people. “You may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations to mislead, confuse, or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of others on Twitter,” the company’s terms of service says.
The company does make exceptions for parody accounts but the accounts have to clearly state that they are parody and are not the entity that they pretending to be.
“If we determine a profile features another’s image, we will also evaluate the context in which the image is used,” the terms of service state. “We are most likely to take action if an account falsely claims to be the entity portrayed in the profile photo, as with impersonation or fake accounts.”
Twitter has seen a substantial drop off in advertiser revenue since Musk became CEO as left-wing activists have pressured companies to suspended their partnerships with the platform because those activists want Musk to use a heavy hand in policing what speech is allowed..
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk tweeted. “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Even before Musk took over Twitter, it was against the social media network’s terms of service to impersonate someone.
You may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations to mislead, confuse, or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of others on Twitter.
We want Twitter to be a place where people can find authentic voices. That means one should be able to trust that the person or organization featured in an account’s profile genuinely represents the account owner. While you are not required to display your real name or image on your profile, your account should not engage in impersonation or pose as someone who doesn’t exist in order to deceive others. Accounts that use deceptive identities can create confusion, as well as undermine the integrity of conversations on Twitter.
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