It’s starting to seem like the richest man in the world may be getting more than he bargained for thanks to his latest acquisition.
During the run-up to his purchase of social media behemoth Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk referred to himself as a free speech absolutist, and after buying the company, tweeted out that “comedy is now legal.”
But it didn’t take long for Musk to walk back his wild-west, anything-goes approach to content moderation, particularly as it pertains to tweets critical of him.
After the announcement from Musk that he had plans to start charging Twitter uses for the blue verification checkmarks that had typically been reserved by the company for celebrities and journalists to prevent impersonation, a number of blue-checked users decided to show Musk what could happen under this policy change by changing their names on their social media accounts to “Elon Musk.”
Musk’s response was to ban several of the accounts in a series of decisions that were ironic at best, hypocritical at worst.
One of the false Musks over the weekend was former NFL punter Chris Kluwe, who changed his Twitter name, bio and photo to match Musk’s official account.
Kluwe then tweeted, “There is nothing better than waking up and enjoying a fresh, steaming cup of my own urine. Such a tangy way to start the day, and it's scientifically proven to help brain cells grow. If you want to be like me, drink your pee.”
Another false Musk, “Mad Men” actor Rich Sommer, tweeted, “Okay, time to employ plan b since they're MAKING me keep twitter. Does anyone know any advertisers who are, like, kind of 'into' racism NOT ACTUAL RACISTS!! just ad ppl who are, y'know, curious about what it's all about (racism).”
And that was just the first in a series of tweets by Sommer cosplaying Musk on the social media site before his account was restricted, as was Kluwe’s and others who became faux Musks for the weekend.
Cartoonist Jeph Jacques changed his photo to one of Musk that has been considered particularly unflattering, taken prior to what many suspect was a hair transplant surgery.
“The remaining staff at twitter are actively bullying me now,” Jacques tweeted as Musk from a blue-checked account. “Jed from accounting called me ‘little baby bitchboy’ to my face and nobody even said anything. I mean obviously I fired him and I'm having my goons break his wife's legs, but still. it hurts :(“
After his own suspension from Twitter, Jacques spoke with Business Insider and called Musk a “chronic bullshit artist.”
“One of the things the email [about my suspension] says is that 'significant changes to a verified profile can lead to confusion and erode the meaning of the badge,'" Jacques said. “I'm thinking reading this email, like ‘Yes, the badge that you're going to be selling for $8 to anybody. That definitely has a lot of meaning.’ It has been very funny. Elon has reacted exactly as I would have expected. And I'm very proud of everybody who took part in this amazing sequence of events.”
After the weekend of unflattering impersonations, Musk attempted to clarify Twitter’s new official stance.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended,” Musk tweeted. “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.”
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