New Twitter owner Elon Musk has announced that verified accounts on Twitter which change their name to impersonate others will be permanently banned from the site. This comes after several celebrities in the US changed their Twitter name to “Elon Musk” and began posting messages to parody the site’s new owner before their accounts were locked or suspended.
Over the weekend, Twitter said it would allow anyone to get a verified blue badge on the platform simply by signing up to the Twitter Blue subscription service and paying a monthly fee. This move was criticised by some over fears it would allow any account to appear legitimate and spread abuse or misinformation more easily.
Mr Musk has said the change would bring “power to the people”, but US comedians including Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin were among those who changed the names on their already verified Twitter accounts to “Elon Musk” to highlight concerns about how the identity of those behind verified accounts would be confirmed under the new policy.
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