Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, has stated that any Twitter handles that engage in impersonation without clearly stating "parody" will be "permanently suspended."
On Sunday evening, multiple accounts that had changed their names to Elon Musk or resembled Elon Musk appeared to be suspended or put behind a warning message, including comedian Kathy Griffin's account.
"Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning," he tweeted on Sunday night.
Any name change, according to him, would result in the temporary removal of a verified checkmark.
Musk tweeted that he will continue to let the account that tracks his activities to remain online, appearing to defend his broad bans. Musk also stated that he was still devoted to free expression.
Musk earlier stated that he was against Twitter permanent bans.
In the midst of the confusion and pain brought on by claims of the sudden termination of half of Twitter's 7,500-person workforce, engineering teams inside the company are releasing new features at a fast pace.
The most recent storm coincides with unease about Twitter's anticipated introduction of verification checks, a feature of its premium Twitter Blue service, which will cost $7.99 per month.
According to the New York Times, the new feature will be postponed until after the U.S. midterm elections, due to worries that users could buy verification, pose as a political official, and then stir electoral confusion.
On Sunday night, there were claims that hundreds of people who had been laid off had been allowed to return because they had either been laid off by mistake or the firm had realized their work was critical to building the new features Musk wants.
In a deal backed by billions of his own funds, he purchased Twitter at the end of last month for $44 billion. The businessman has now established a war room in the company's San Francisco headquarters, where he and a small group of advisors are frantically trying to cut costs and introduce new items.
Musk stated last week that previously banned accounts won't be permitted to return to Twitter unless the social media site has "a clear process for doing so."
Developing such a mechanism would take at least a few weeks, Musk said in a tweet, providing further information about the probable return of Twitter's most famous banned user, former U.S. President Donald Trump. According to the new plan, Trump will not be able to return in time for the November 8 midterm elections.
