Elon Musk’s recent purchase of Twitter and the changes he has implemented has caused a lot of ruckus on and off the social media platform. For comedians, it’s an interesting time to be on the website. And Musk has gotten himself caught up in a larger conversation about the right to parody and the distinction between it and impersonation.
One of the first tweets made by Musk upon his purchasing of twitter was one stating that “comedy is now legal again” on the website. Many users on the site sowed chaos by making jokes at the billionaire’s expense. This included one series of tweets from comedian Tim Heidecker, in which he mocked Musk’s policies surrounding deregulation of speech on the site.
Since then, the subject of comedy has not left Musk’s mind. One of his changes was to the verification system on Twitter. While previously the coveted blue check mark was given out by Twitter solely to those deemed famous enough to deserve them, users are now able to purchase a verification badge for eight dollars.
It wasn’t long until users used the ability to purchase verification to make parody accounts of real famous people, notably Musk himself. Musk responded by stating that parody twitter accounts needed to explicitly say “parody” in their description. When that proved insufficient, he altered his decision to state that accounts must say “parody” in their name.
In the intervening time, there has been some kerfuffle with the parody rules. Prominent accounts like comedian Kathy Griffin, who did violate the Terms of Service, were permanently banned. And some larger accounts that did follow the TOS were banned as well.
Musk may be realizing that this question on the right to parody is a bit of a bee’s nest. In fact, it’s a question that has been popping up a lot. We recently wrote about The Onion’s hilarious appeal for the right to parody to the Supreme Court. This was in defense of one man who made a parody page of a local police station, and was shortly arrested.
The question really boils down to figuring out the difference between parody and impersonation. If someone were to reasonably believe that an account were the real thing, they could be misled to believe that the words coming from that account were the official statements of the individual or group. But do you need to be as explicit as labeling yourself parody for the sake of clarity?
Musk and many other people say yes. In an effort to fight back against misinformation, this is a step that needs to be taken on the internet, for the sake of not running a risk of tricking large numbers of people. But sometimes such a strict rule can lead to pretty absurd situations. For example, when comedian Sarah Silverman changed her Twitter account to look like Musk’s and tweeted out “I am a freedom of speech absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast every day,” it is tough to believe that anyone actually believed this to be coming from Musk.
Parody is a key part of comedy and many would argue an important part of our right to free speech. As a private company, Twitter is not required to uphold free speech in it’s entirety, but it is a core part of Musk’s message when buying the company. In the coming months and years we will see how Musk squares this away.