Technology
Elon Musk has said that parody accounts would be required to include the word "parody" in both the name and the bio of the account.
Updated : Nov 11, 2022, 11:17 PM IST
Many things have changed since Elon Musk became Twitter's dominant figure, and one of them is the meteoric rise in the number of parody accounts, some of which mock Musk himself. Many users of the social networking site are confused since most of the spoof profiles seem to be legitimate. Twitter's haste to individually remove these accounts comes at a time when the social media platform is under fire for more than one reason.
Elon Musk tweeted his thoughts on parody accounts once again on Friday, saying that it is not acceptable to fool people and that parody accounts should have the word "parody" in their name rather than their profile.
"Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include “parody” in their name, not just in bio. To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok," Musk tweeted after some users reported that the USD 7.99 Twitter Blue membership option was removed, while others who had been verified got their "Official" blue checkmarks reinstated.
Elon Musk had previously issued a warning against the parody accounts, stressing that altering the name of an account would temporarily invalidate the verified status of the account.
Parody accounts are those that pretend to be someone or something else on social media. Making a parody account is as simple as changing your username and profile image. Twitter's moniker, though, won't be changing. Users on Twitter might be duped if verified accounts suddenly changed their display names. The Twitter account of comedian Kathy Griffin was temporarily disabled because of her imitation of Elon Musk.
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Since Twitter has no communications department (according to The Verge), it's hard to tell whether paid verification is gone for permanently or temporarily blocked, although Reuters reported today that Twitter had restored the "Official" badges on certain accounts.