Twitter to permanently ban account impersonators – Musk

Twitter will permanently suspend users who impersonate authentic accounts on the social media platform, new owner Elon Musk has revealed.

“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.”

Musk also said any name change at all will cause temporary loss of the verified checkmark.

The move came after the platform allegedly suspended users who had changed their user names to Elon Musk, including U.S. comedian Kathy Griffin and actor Rich Sommer.

After Griffin’s suspension, Musk tweeted that she had been banned “for impersonating a comedian.”

“But if she really wants her account back, she can have it for eight U.S. dollars,” he wrote.

Musk completed his 44-billion-dollar takeover of the platform last week, immediately cutting the workforce and implementing a monthly subscription fee for users to be verified on the platform.

The Guardian UK reports that Actor Valerie Bertinelli had similarly appropriated Musk’s screen name posting a series of tweets in support of Democratic candidates on Saturday before switching back to her true name. “Okey-dokey. I’ve had fun and I think I made my point,” she tweeted afterwards.

The latest storm comes amid concerns about the potential for the abuse of Twitter’s planned rollout of verification checks for a monthly fee of $7.99, which is a feature of its paid-for Twitter Blue service.

Bertinelli noted the original purpose of the blue verification checkmark. It was granted free of charge to people whose identity Twitter had confirmed; with journalists accounting for a big portion of recipients. “It simply meant your identity was verified. Scammers would have a harder time impersonating you,” Bertinelli said. “That no longer applies. Good luck out there!”

Responding to a tweet about this problem, Musk tweeted: “You represent the problem: journalists who think they are the only source of legitimate information. That’s the big lie.”

The New York Times reports Musk’s new blue tick proposal would be delayed until after the US midterm elections, amid concerns users could buy verification, pretend to be a political figure and then sow electoral confusion.

(dpa/NAN)