Elon Musk says fake Twitter accounts must have ‘parody’ in name after flood of accounts impersonating people
A flood of parody accounts purporting to be famous celebrities, politicians, and companies have proliferated this week
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Elon Musk is trying to set parameters after a wave of fake but verified accounts flooded Twitter this week following the company’s rollout of the $8-a-month verification policy.
On Thursday, Musk said accounts engaged in parody must henceforth include "parody" in their name, not just in their bio.
"To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations," Musk said. "Basically, tricking people is not okay."
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Previously, Musk said Twitter will permanently suspend any account engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying "parody."
A blue verification check on the page of Twitter Inc. on a smartphone arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. (Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Since then, a flood of accounts purporting to be famous people and brands – everyone from LeBron James to George W. Bush to Nintendo – have popped up on the platform, stoking even more chaos after Musk’s tumultuous takeover of the company late last month.
Many of these parody accounts included the name of the person or company in the handle alongside the blue verification checkmark. This made it impossible to know these were parody accounts without clicking on the profiles and seeing the bios.
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Earlier Thursday, a fake account purporting to be Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly said it was offering free insulin. By evening, the company logo had been removed from the avatar and the tweet had been taken down for violating the company's rules.