Twitter owner Elon Musk on Sunday said users of the social media platform who impersonate authentic accounts on the platform will be banned, The Hill reported.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk wrote. “Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.”
He said the rules against impersonations would be “clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue,” adding that users would also temporarily lose verification if they change their profile name.
The news comes after Twitter suspended several users who had changed their user names to Elon Musk to impersonate the billionaire on the social media platform, according to The Hill.
Musk’s announcement is the latest in a series of moves he has taken since he officially took over Twitter at the end of October.
On the day the sale went final, Musk fired at least four top executives at the company.
On Friday, Twitter laid off half its workforce, with tweets by staff of the social media company saying the team responsible for human rights was among those affected.
Musk’s acquisition of Twitter almost fell through when he announced in July that he was backing out of the deal after alleging the firm failed to provide enough information on fake account numbers.
Twitter fired back at Musk and said his bid to terminate the acquisition of the social media company is “invalid and wrongful.”
A day later, the social media company sued Musk in the Delaware Court of Chancery to force him to go through with the deal.
Ultimately, Musk reversed course and again proposed to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share.