Comedian Kathy Griffinâs Twitter account was suspended after she appeared to mock the companyâs new owner.
On Sunday, she changed the title of her Twitter page to say âElon Musk.â
It came as Musk tweeted an announcement about parody accounts.
âGoing forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying âparodyâ will be permanently suspended,â Musk tweeted.
He continued, âPreviously, 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.â
Additionally, Musk wrote, âAny name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark.â
Several critics spoke out on Twitter following Griffinâs suspension.
One user tweeted, âKathy Griffin is a comedian and a fierce smart activist I guess there is no such thing as free speech after all on this site.â
https://Twitter.com/RoArquette/status/1589407417724710914
Another wrote, âHi. Iâm (THIS IS PARODY) and Iâm going to suspend Kathy Griffin for a joke the same day I reinstate Kanye West because Iâm an antisemitic, homophobic, broken, un-loved prick (NOT parody).â
One tweet called for Griffinâs account to be reinstated, adding, âAlso, thereâs an election Tuesday. Vote for Democrats.â
The New York Post reported Musk replied to a tweet about Griffinâs suspension.
âActually, she was suspended for impersonating a comedian,â he said.
Musk added, âBut if she really wants her account back, she can have it ⌠For $8.â
Griffin herself went on to use her late motherâs Twitter account to speak out against Musk, as the Post reported.
âLook, please do a better job running this company. It used to mean something. This is KG btw,â she wrote.
The comedian also used the hashtag #FreeKathy.
The outlet pointed out Griffin risks getting her motherâs account suspended along with her own account due to Twitterâs âban evasion policy.â
According to the policy, âTwitter reserves the right to also permanently suspend any other account we believe the same account holder or entity may be operating in violation of our earlier suspension, regardless of when the other account was created.â
