As many Twitter users are calling foul on Elon Musk‘s plan to charge $8 a month for a blue “verified” checkmark, the company’s new CEO showed Kathy Griffin that nobody is above the company’s “terms and conditions.”
Kathy — and other users, including for a short time Valerie Bertinelli — thought it snarky to protest the new charge by turning their Twitter handles to “Elon Musk.” However, impersonating somebody on Twitter has always been a ban-worthy move, so Musk, in turn, switched off Griffin’s access to her account.
When Benny Johnson, an anchor for Newsmax took note of this, Musk responded to him Sunday by dropping a now-viral diss. “Actually, she was suspended for impersonating a comedian,” Elon wrote, earning more than 400,000 likes. One user even posted a picture of Griffin from her infamous Trump decapitation photo, but instead of a bloody head, she’s holding a bloody “checkmark” picture.
Elon then added, “But if she really wants to have her account back, she can,” before adding the cheeky caveat, “For $8.”
He later posted, “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” and that anyone who violates will lose their coveted tick.
Critics in the past have accused Twitter of withholding — or in some cases deleting — checkmarks from conservative voices on the platform.
Musk claims that by monetizing the symbol, he’s trying to democratize the process to steer it away from the “lords and peasants” former system.
Griffin returned to Twitter later Sunday evening using her “dead mother’s account,” saying Maggie Griffin “would not mind.” However, that, too, is a violation of the impersonation rules.
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
