Millions of followers, blue-tick go down the drain as Twitter suspends accounts for impersonating Elon Musk

Twitter as we know and love is gone. The social media platform which in the past was pretty famous for its trolls and parody accounts has now taken a hard stance against people "impersonating" its new owner Elon Musk.

As per AFP, verified accounts with millions of followers have now been suspended after their username was changed to 'Elon Musk'. And among those locked out of the platform is the account belonging to comedian Kathy Griffin, who had two million followers and was "blue-ticked".

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Musk's response to a tweet announcing Griffin's suspension from the service added fuel to the fire.He joked, "Actually, she was suspended for impersonating a comedian."

Using the hashtag #FreeKathypeople, including "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill,entered the discourse, asking Musk to "do a better job running this company".

This comes after Musk, who has previously described himself as a "free speech absolutist" tweeted Sunday that "any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended."

However, despite claiming to be a parody, the Twitter account for h3h3Productions, which similarly changed its user name to Elon Musk, was also suspended, reports AFP.

Musk has publicly pondered how to generate revenue ever since completing his $44 billion acquisition of the social media giant.

The corporation has already taken steps such as terminating half of its global personnel and charging $8 per month for the formerly free blue tick verification.

(With inputs from agencies)

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