The new boss of Twitter has himself been the subject of mockery by several accounts in the past few hours.
“Comedy is now legal on Twitter”. It was with this tweet that Elon Musk boasted of his takeover of the platform on October 28. Legal, but under certain conditions. This November 6, the new boss of Twitter, himself the subject of parodies, did not wait for the creation of the future moderation council to toughen the rules concerning humorous accounts.
“Any Twitter account that engages in identity theft without clearly specifying that it is a ‘parody’ will be permanently banned”, announced Elon Musk.
No more warning
A position that contrasts with the promises of freedom of expression of the boss of Tesla, and which comes to reinforce the rules of moderation already existing concerning identity theft. Currently, the social network already banned to mislead Internet users by impersonating someone else, including for humorous purposes.
But the main change concerns the sanctions planned by Elon Musk. For the time being, a parody account that does not clearly display its purpose is initially subject to a warning, accompanied by a request to modify the account to clarify its parody nature, then to a temporary suspension. If these two warnings are not enough, the account is then permanently suspended.
“Previously, we warned the user before the suspension, but now that we allow everyone to be certified, there will be no more warning” warns Elon Musk.
With these words, he refers to the new subscription offered by Twitter, which is currently being rolled out. The latter allows any user to buy a blue certification badge without having to prove their identity, as long as they agree to pay the sum of eight dollars per month.
In the past few hours, several accounts mocking Elon Musk, like that of comedian Kathy Griffin, have been temporarily or permanently suspended.