Actor impersonates Elon Musk on Twitter, Musk responds with heated ban warning

Over the weekend, actor Valerie Bertinelli decided to impersonate Elon Musk on Twitter by changing her name and profile picture.

The actor then decided to post and retweet content that showed support for Democratic candidates in an attempt to prove a point with Twitter's coming verification checkmark system. Bertinelli, and many others have voiced concerns that Musk's new $8 verification checkmark system will allow for random people to impersonate other individuals and then spread misinformation under their new identities. Bertinelli decided to illustrate this point by impersonating Musk and posting content such as "#VoteBlueToProtectYourRights" and supportive posts for candidates Gretchen Whitmore in Michigan and Beto O'Rourke in Texas.

Bertinelli has since changed her display name back, saying that she "had her fun" and that "I think I made my point". However, this stunt by Bertinelli has seemingly caught the attention of Twitter owner Elon Musk as the SpaceX CEO recently took to her personal Twitter to make a stark announcement regarding impersonating other individuals on Twitter. Musk wrote that moving forward, any Twitter accounts that are found engaging in impersonation without clearly disclosing that their account is a parody account will be permanently banned from the platform.

Musk further explained that Twitter's policies previously issued a warning to users that were impersonating accounts, but since widespread verification is now being rolled out, "there will be no warning" and that this new policy will be clearly identified as a condition when an individual is signing up to Twitter Blue. Furthermore, Musk said that any display name change at all will cause a temporary loss of the verification checkmark.

In other news about Twitter's verification, Elon Musk agreed with the proposition that an investigation should be launched into former Twitter employees selling verification checkmarks to users for upwards of $15,000 as the SpaceX CEO said that checkmarks were egregiously given out, sometimes arbitrarily. Additionally, Musk recently gave an update on how and when banned Twitter accounts will be reinstated to the platform, along with exactly what individuals will get if they decide to sign up for Twitter Blue for just $8 a month. If you are interested in learning more check out the stories found below.

• Read more: Elon Musk reveals what you'll get on Twitter if you pay $8 a month
• Read more: Elon Musk gives an update on banned accounts returning back to Twitter
• Read more: Elon Musk agrees Twitter staff privately sold verification for more than $15,000