Musk warns impersonating Twitter accounts may lead to permanent suspension

New Twitter CEO Elon Musk has warned users of the social media platform that their accounts will be permanently suspended without warning if they impersonated others without specifying "parody".

Over the weekend, several Twitter accounts had changed their name to "Elon Musk" or to usernames that suggested those handles were of the tech billionaire. Some of these accounts appeared suspended or were put behind a warning sign.

Impersonation and bots are two main focuses of the tech billionaire, who took over as Twitter CEO late last month after buying the social media giant in a $44 billion deal. Since then, Twitter has been attracting massive public scrutiny amid a debate over free speech and content moderation.

Last week, Twitter laid off half of its workforce -- close to 3,700 people -- as part of measures to cut costs. It's also rolling out a new feature to charge $8 from those who wish to keep the 'blue tick', which signifies a verified account.

"Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended," said Musk, 51, in a tweet.
 

He also said that Twitter is now conducting a widespread verification, so there will be no warning to those indulging in impersonation.

"Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning. This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue," the Tesla and SpaceX CEO added.

There's more. Musk said if an account holder changes their name, it "will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark".
 

These new features are likely intended to reduce the number of accounts which may try to impersonate a verified account, thereby creating confusion for other users. Even before Musk bought Twitter, he had raised the issue of bots inundating the micro-blogging site.

"Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That's our mission," Musk declared.

 

But only a few people are buying his argument. Many have aired their reservations on how Musk intends to achieve this, especially the $8 cost for Twitter Blue.

Mark Ruffalo, who portrayed the famous character of "Hulk" in Marvel's Avengers franchise, asked Musk to "get off Twitter".

"Elon. Please—for the love of decency—get off Twitter, hand the keys over to someone who does this as an actual job, and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX. You are destroying your credibility. It's just not a good look," Ruffalo tweeted.