Comedienne Kathy Griffin earned herself a Twitter suspension on Sunday when she impersonated billionaire Elon Musk as a stunt for Democrats.
Changing her profile name while employing Musk’s exact profile picture, Kathy Griffin then asked her thousands of followers to “Vote Blue” in the coming midterm election.
“Hey complainers and activists. Want to see real activism? Watch this. RT w #VoteBlue,” Griffin tweeted.
Twitter suspended Griffin’s account within an hour.
Though Elon Musk did not address the Griffin situation directly, he issued a clarification that Twitter will immediately suspend impersonating accounts that do not specifically label themselves parody.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended,” he tweeted. “Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.”
“Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark,” he added.
Kathy Griffin, who famously canceled herself in 2017 when she posted a photo of herself holding a bloodied severed head of then-President Donald Trump, has stumped hard for Democrats this election cycle, even going as far to say that “civil war” will erupt if Republicans win on Tuesday.
“If you don’t want a Civil War, vote for Democrats in November. If you do want Civil War, vote Republican,” she tweeted in September.
In a later tweet, Griffin responded to Breitbart News reporter Kristina Wong and denied that she was threatening violence.
“You guys. The maga blue checks are at it again. Because they are constantly threatening Civil War, they are now trying to suggest that I am the one who is threatening a Civil War. Because you know, that’s my thing,” she added.
In 2020, Griffin also advocated for physical violence against Trump by suggesting that someone use a syringe on him “with the air inside” — a potentially lethal act.
“Syringe with nothing but air inside would do the trick. FUCK TRUMP,” she tweeted.