The Musk era got off to a good start. American comedian Kathy Griffin paid the price. She saw her account, followed by more than 2 million followers, suspended on Sunday November 6. She had changed her name to Elon Musk on the social network, and encouraged Americans to vote for the midterm elections.
According to BFMTV, the comic had also replaced his profile photo with a snapshot of the businessman, before asking his subscribers to vote Democratic in the midterm elections in the United States, and to leave Twitter for his competitor. , Mastodon.
“Going forward, all Twitter accounts engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying parody will be permanently suspended,” reacted the entrepreneur in a tweet. “Any name change will result in the temporary loss of the verified checkmark,” said Elon Musk, who then said that to recover his account, Kathy Griffin would have to pay 8 dollars – the price of the future subscription to the “Twitter Blue” service.
An “attack on democracy”
Until now, eligible accounts (governments, media, political and cultural figures, etc.) could obtain the addition of a blue tick to their profile, as a guarantee of authenticity. As soon as he acquired Twitter ten days ago, the Tesla boss launched an overhaul of this system, so that everyone could obtain the famous badge, and other practical tools, by subscribing to “Twitter Blue” for 8 dollars per month.
Kathy Griffin, whose account has still not been reactivated, returned to the platform using her late mother’s account. On Sunday, the comedian thus replied to Elon Musk: “I am back from the dead to tell you to free Kathy. »
On Franceinfo, the EELV MEP Yannick Jadot considered that Twitter was “the latest avatar of a system that wants to destroy everything”. “We had a system which is, as we know, predatory from the point of view of the environment, predatory from the social point of view, but today these social networks are an attack on democracy”, developed the former candidate. in the presidential election on franceinfo.