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The comment capped a chaotic weekend for the corporate, which Musk acquired for $44 billion somewhat over per week in the past. After shedding about half of the corporate on Friday, Twitter started scrambling to rehire some who have been let go. It postponed the deliberate launch of its new paid verification product till after the midterm elections.
And it suspended main accounts for impersonating Musk, below a brand new coverage that Musk introduced Sunday.
Twitter began suspending accounts “engaged in impersonation” after Musk introduced that each one faux accounts with out the “parody” label can be instantly banned from the platform. The transfer got here after a flood of individuals modified their show names to match his.
“Going ahead, any Twitter handles partaking in impersonation with out clearly specifying “parody” can be completely suspended,” Musk tweeted Sunday afternoon. “Beforehand, we issued a warning earlier than suspension, however now that we’re rolling out widespread verification, there can be no warning.”
To independent-minded voters:
Shared energy curbs the worst excesses of each events, subsequently I like to recommend voting for a Republican Congress, provided that the Presidency is Democratic.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
“Any title change in any respect will trigger short-term lack of verified checkmark,” he added, referring to the blue verify mark subsequent to folks’s names, which signifies that their account is genuine and never an impersonation.
The brand new impersonation coverage appeared to contradict Musk’s assurance final week that he would convene a “content material moderation council with broadly various viewpoints” earlier than making any main content material selections.
In one other fast reversal, the corporate started reaching out over the weekend to attempt to rehire workers it had simply laid off, in keeping with a number of inner sources, together with one with direct information of the rehiring efforts who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate issues.
A number of Twitter customers, a few of whom are verified on the platform, began altering their show names to “Elon Musk” after the billionaire accomplished his $44 billion buy of the platform in late October. Many, posing as Musk, mocked his controversial announcement that Twitter would quickly cost customers $8 per 30 days for verification.
Amongst these apparently suspended from Twitter for altering their show names to “Elon Musk” was comic Kathy Griffin, who, below Musk’s moniker, urged People to vote for Democrats within the midterm elections.
“I’ve determined that voting blue for his or her selection is just proper,” she wrote shortly earlier than her account was suspended. YouTuber Ethan Klein was additionally gave the impression to be suspended from the platform after he joined these impersonating Musk.
Griffin’s followers known as Twitter’s transfer a crackdown on freedom of speech and parody, utilizing the hashtag #freekathy to criticize the platform’s new coverage. In a while Sunday, Musk, who’s the world’s richest individual, tweeted that Griffin might have her account again if she paid up.
“If she actually needs her account again, she will be able to have it,” Musk wrote. “For $8.”
Griffin, in the meantime, seems to have moved on to different platforms.
Quickly after she was locked out of her Twitter account, she wrote on Instagram: “I’m trending on Twitter. Lengthy story.”
She additionally joined Mastodon, the six-year-old social platform that has steadily gained new followers since Musk’s Twitter takeover.
On Monday, Mastodon’s founder, Eugen Rochko, mentioned it was “fairly cool” that the social community had reached greater than 1 million month-to-month energetic customers and that the community had acquired nearly half one million new customers since Oct. 27 — the day of Musk’s Twitter takeover.
Final week, Mastodon acknowledged its servers are “below very heavy load,” a results of what it mentioned was an “excessive spike in consumer numbers.”
Twitter’s crackdown on parody accounts is a protracted line of latest coverage adjustments launched after Musk purchased the platform. Shortly after taking on the platform, he fired a number of longtime Twitter executives and introduced mass layoffs on the firm.
Cat Zakrzewski contributed to this report.
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