Elon Musk’s X to take strict action against parody accounts

The tech billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is introducing rules more stringent for parody accounts to reduce confusion and impersonation.

Starting April 10, the Musk-owned platform has asked parody accounts to include keywords like "fake" or "parody" at the beginning of their account names and use different images from the accounts they represent.

"These changes are designed to help users better understand the unaffiliated nature of PCF accounts and reduce the risk of confusion or impersonation," the company noted in a post.

Notably, the platform had previously introduced labels for parody accounts in January, building on its rules requiring users engaging in impersonation for entertainment purposes to identify themselves.

However, the effectiveness of these measures has been disputed. Some users have complained about the confusion caused by parody accounts, particularly those impersonating Elon Musk.

It should be noted that parody accounts sometimes blur the line of boundary between humour and actual reality, making users sometimes lose focus and think they're engaging with an official one.

Now, with this potential update, the platform is trying to improve transparency and trust in the users.

It is worth mentioning that earlier, the European Union (EU) expressed concerns about X's blue tick verification system, stating that it could potentially deceive users.

Musk responded to these concerns, calling the EU's rules "misinformation."

The new rules aim to help X users understand the unaffiliated nature of parody accounts. The company has also encouraged affected accounts to update their profiles by the enforcement date.