2022 Elon Musk Twitter Parody Account Bans

Overview

2022 Elon Musk Twitter Parody Account Bans refers to Twitter owner Elon Musk's contentious decision to ban parody accounts impersonating a person that doesn't explicitly label themselves as "parody." This move came after a series of accounts impersonating Musk himself, including ones owned by famous comedians, posted viral tweets that attracted a lot of attention amid the viral debate surrounding the $8 blue checkmark change for verified accounts on Twitter days before.

Background

In November 2022, following Musk's purchase of Twitter and announcement of various changes to the platform, accounts parodying the CEO began to spring up in large numbers. For example, one by Twitter user @ChrisWarcraft using Musk's name and profile picture tweeted about drinking urine on November 4th and earned over 100,000 likes before the account was suspended (shown below).^[1]

Additional variants mimicking Musk continued to appear on Twitter. Another, under the username @JephJacques, tweeted about a variety of topics including Musk's relationship with Grimes, the meme that he could end world hunger if he wished to, etc., earned hundreds of likes on each tweet before being suspended after November 5th, 2022 (seen below, left).^[2] That same day, comedian Kathy Griffin changed her account to impersonate Elon Musk and was banned from the platform (see below, right) leading to much backlash from posters.^[3]

Ethan Klein of h3h3productions also changed his account in early November to a parody of Musk, which he labeled as such in both a banner image and in replies to tweets posted while "Elon Musk" was his username (seen below, left). The @h3h3productions tweets focused on mocking Musk for his personality, attempts at humor and alleged connections to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (seen below, right).^[11]

Parody Account Ban Announcement

On November 6th, 2022, Musk posted a tweet (seen below) decreeing the permanent suspension of accounts such as @h3h3productions and @KathyGriffin, earning almost half a million likes in a day.^[4]

Online Reactions

Following the suspensions of the Elon Musk parody accounts, particularly the high-profile h3h3 and Kathy Griffin suspensions, some users on Twitter questioned Musk's commitment to free speech. They argued that the new CEO, unable to take a joke at his expense, had lashed out unjustly at the people around him. Musk, defending himself, doubled down on his $8 verification scheme but did not address the backlash or reiterate that protecting free speech includes protecting speech that makes fun of Musk.

Posters in the reply to Musk's tweet decreeing the suspension of parody accounts posted memes documenting Musk's evolution of the comedy issue, from declaring that "Comedy is legal" earlier in 2022 to unilaterally punishing comedians on the platform he owns. For example, Twitter user @holyrobit posted a Putting On Clown Make Up meme (seen below) on Elon Musk's views on comedy, earning almost 500 likes in a few hours on November 7th.^[6]

On November 7th @JimMFelton (seen below, top) took the opportunity to point out that verification, the blue checkmark feature which Musk planned to reform and charge $8 for, existed exactly to prevent parody accounts and misinformation and Musk was discovering what it was for. He earned over 12,000 likes in a few hours.^[7] @westtexastwit posted a meme mocking Musk's commitment to free speech on the same day, earning just under 4,000 likes in a similar timeframe.^[8]

External References