Twitter on Monday suspended the account of American comedian and actor Kathy Griffin, with CEO Elon Musk saying users who were "engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying "parody" will be permanently suspended".
Griffin is a comedian who won a Prime Time Emmy for her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and has appeared as a guest on the 90s TV show Suddenly Susan.
The suspension of Griffin's account triggered yet another Twitter debate with users criticising Musk.
Why was Kathy Griffin's account suspended?
American columnist and podcast host Benny Johnson tweeted on Monday saying, "BREAKING: @KathyGriffin has been permanently suspended from Twitter for impersonating @ElonMusk"
The tweet was accompanied by a screenshot of the suspended account that showed the name of the account as "Elon Musk" but the Twitter handle as "@kathygriffin"
Musk responded to Johnson's tweets claiming Griffin's account was suspended for impersonating a comedian. Musk added that if Griffin wanted her account back, she could have for $8.
This is the latest among Musk's decisions, mostly announced in tweets by him, since he took over as Twitter CEO. Musk made headlines when he first said that all verified accounts would have to pay $20 to retain their 'blue ticks', a feature that comes with having a verified account. In the face of backlash, Musk reduced the charges to $8 and has stuck to the number.
Twitter updated its app on Saturday to reflect the $8 subscription model and said that anyone who subscribes will get a blue tick beside their name just like celebrities, politicians and companies. This is the first major rehaul since Musk took over as CEO of Twitter after he bought the microblogging site in a $44 billion deal.
Musk's bid to monetise the company by charging people for verification received criticism from all quarters, with even writer Stephen King comparing the billionaire to Tom Sawyer. King said, "Musk makes me think of Tom Sawyer, who is given the job of whitewashing a fence as punishment. Tom cons his friends into doing the chore for him, and getting them to pay for the privilege. That's what Musk wants to do with Twitter. No, no, no."
What are Twitter's rules on parody and impersonation?
According to Twitter guidelines, a user does not necessarily have to display their real name or image on their profile. But, "your account should not engage in impersonation or pose as someone who doesn't exist in order to deceive others". It says that creating "deceptive identities" can create confusion and undermine the integrity of conversations on Twitter. "For this reason, you may not misappropriate the identity of another person, group, or organization, or create a fake identity for deceptive purposes," the rules read.
Twitter explicitly mentions that parody, commentary, or fan accounts that comply with its policy do not violate the rules, but they must explicitly mention that they are parody accounts.
"Accounts are less likely to violate this policy if the profile contains context that indicates the account is not affiliated with the subject in the profile image, as with parody, commentary, or fan accounts," the rules say.
In case a parody or a fan account does not identify itself so explicitly, Twitter can ask the user to edit the information on the profile. " If you violate this policy again after your first warning, your account will be permanently suspended," the rules said.
What are the new rules under Musk?
Musk said while certain accounts were given a warning before being suspended, that would not be the case anymore. Musk said, "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."
At the time of writing this article, the new rules did not reflect on the Twitter 'Help Center' page.
Musk also said that a name change by a user would result in the temporary loss of the blue tick.
Must went on to talk about how he was committed to free speech on Twitter saying it extended to "not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk".
Criticism over Griffin's account suspension
Several Twitter users criticised Musk for Griffin's account having been suspended, saying that it was indeed a muzzling of free speech. "It's about making you just uncomfortable enough to avoid tweets critical of him or posting that next expose on him," said Lindsay Boylan.
Another Twitter user, 'Mueller, She Wrote' pointed out that while Griffin, a public personality, was penalised, an account that was impersonating them had not been suspended.
Twitter user Michael J. Stern responded to Musk's tweet about his commitment to free speech saying, "But you suspended @kathygriffin for parodying you?? Does not sound like free speech to me."
Author Kurt Eichenwald said that Musk did not care about actual fake accounts, but suspended the account of a person who was actually real.
Twitter user Maer Roshan, who is the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Magazine, called out Musk asking why Griffin was suspended when Kanye West, who made anti-Semitic remarks on the microblogging site, still faced no action. Roshan did not name West in his tweet.