The Twitter situation, after the acquisition by Elon Muskhas become at least paradoxical, and the snowball effect could be around the corner. The new sole owner of the blue platform has set the record straight: verified accounts will be paid and absolutely forbidden to impersonate someone else. Especially if this someone else is him, Elon Musk.
The move, which initially served to clean up quite a few fake accounts from the chirping blue bird database, is now getting out of hand, especially because it is crossed by American satire, which does not look at anyone, especially a multi-billionaire. Basically, what is happening is that Musk has implemented a series of prohibitionist maneuvers. And prohibition, as historically established, risks generating the opposite effect. The first to pay the price – we told you about it yesterday here – was the American comedian and actress Kathy Griffin.
Griffin had changed both his name and profile picture on Twitter, pretending to be Elon Musk. In disguise, she then shared a series of tweets in support of Democratic candidates in the upcoming mid-term elections in the United States. “After many animated discussions with the women in my life, I have decided to vote in blue [democratico, ndr] that’s right, ”he wrote in a post. “And anyway they are also sexy women” read in another tweet with a lot of hashtag #VoteBlueToProtectWomen.
Result? Account ban and for a few hours, in trend, a high hashtag entered it: #FreeKathywhich demanded the “release” of the comic’s account.
Griffin changed her name and profile picture to Musk’s and encouraged followers to vote for Democratic candidates in this Tuesday’s midterm elections. pic.twitter.com/HzQTSbAvFI
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 7, 2022
Elon Musk and zero tolerance on Twitter: other celebrities blocked
However, Kathy Griffin wasn’t the only one to have her account blocked. It is the case of Sarah Silverman, a former Saturday Night Live star, whose account was blocked for the same reasons. Silverman had also changed his name and profile picture to make fun of Elon Musk. Rolling Stone reports that posing as the billionaire he tweeted: “I am an absolutist of free speech and I eat doody for breakfast every day”. Again, immediate ban for several hours. Below are the screenshots of his posts.
NME reports that other celebrities who have been suspended from Twitter for impersonating Elon Musk would be the actor rich summer (Mad Men) e Chris Kluweformer NFL star.
Weird Al Yankovic and Harry Potter are not afraid of Elon Musk and Twitter
Speaking of parodies, it is impossible not to mention the absolute master: Weird Al Yankovic. The musician spread the ironic fake news according to which the actor Daniel Radcliffe – famous for playing Harry Potter – would have been blocked by Twitter. In reality, Radcliffe doesn’t have a Twitter account, and Yankovic’s maneuver is a clear reference to the biopic Weird: Al Yankovic Story, in which Radcliffe himself wore the clothes (and Hawaiian shirt) of the legendary musician.
Scientists worried about Twitter drift
However, Hollywood stars are not the only ones to be worried about the autocratic drift of social media. Ansa reports that many researchers and academics would be expressing their hesitations with regard to recent Twitter news. The platform has historically been used by men of science to confront each other. A blatant example was the recent Covid-19 pandemic, when researchers around the world used Twitter to talk about the global situation.
Elon Musk’s recent layoffs – which affected around 50% of Twitter employees – have generated many perplexity in academic circles. These fear a exponential increase of disinformation and fake news. It is no coincidence that in the last few days, hashtags such as #GoodbyeTwitter e #TwitterMigration. Users and academics are indeed migrating to Mastodona platform that has gained over 100,000 new users in no time.