Key Points
- Elon Musk says Twitter users engaging in impersonation without specifying it as a "parody" account will be suspended.
- He says there will no warning as well as " no exceptions".
- Satirical website the Chaser and US comedian Kathy Griffin are among those who have had their accounts suspended.
Elon Musk says Twitter users engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a "parody" account will be permanently suspended without a warning.
In a separate tweet on Sunday, Mr Musk said Twitter previously issued a warning before suspension, but as Twitter is rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning as well as "no exceptions".
"This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue," Musk said, adding any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark.
Australian satirical website the Chaser was among several Twitter accounts that were suspended on Saturday after changing the account name to "Elom Musk".
US comedian Kathy Griffin also had her Twitter account suspended after changing her username and profile photo to match Elon Musk's.
It comes as Twitter on Saturday updated its app in Apple's App Store to begin charging $12 for sought-after blue check verification marks, in Elon Musk's first major revision of the social media platform.
Mr Musk, who also will serve as chief executive of Twitter, last month said Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints".
"No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes," he added.
On the topic of banned accounts, Mr Musk last week said they will not be allowed back onto Twitter until the social media platform has "a clear process for doing so".
Creating such a process would take at least a few more weeks, Mr Musk had tweeted, giving more clarity about the potential return of Twitter's most famous banned user, former US president Donald Trump.
The new timeline implies Mr Trump will not return in time for the midterm elections on 8 November.
Earlier on Sunday, the New York Times reported Twitter is delaying the rollout of verification check marks to subscribers of its new service until after Tuesday's midterm elections.
After Twitter laid off roughly half its staff on Friday following Musk's $68 billion acquisition, the company is now reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.
Some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake. Others were let go before management realised that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Mr Musk envisions, the report said citing people familiar with the moves.
Twitter recently laid off 50 per cent of its employees, including employees on the trust and safety team, the company's head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth said in a tweet earlier this week.
Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams.
Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
