H3H3’s Ethan Klein is the latest victim of Twitter’s new impersonation crackdown
YouTube star Ethan Klein, known for the channel h3h3Productions, has become the latest public figure to be slammed by the Twitter ban hammer under the control of Elon Musk as the platform continues to crack down on impersonation.
Yesterday, Musk tweeted out guidance surrounding Twitter’s move to stop impersonation on the platform, explaining that accounts known for parody would be safe from potential account suspensions. Things don’t appear to be so simple, however, as adding parody to your description before impersonating somebody (as Klein and others who attempted this found) out can still lead to a suspension from the platform.
Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022
After changing his Twitter profile name to Elon Musk and adding a profile image to match, Klein proceeded to tempt fate by tweeting out messages joking about the billionaire’s relationships with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. While doing this, the YouTuber did note on multiple occasions that it was intended to be a parody, but this didn’t save his account from suspension.
Following the ban, the account for Klein’s YouTube show The H3 Podcast reacted to the move stating that comedy on Twitter has died at the hands of Elon Musk.
Comedy is dead on twitter and Elon Musk killed it pic.twitter.com/eFUFW7gqYp
— The H3 Podcast (@theh3podcast) November 7, 2022
Alongside Klein, Kathy Griffin was also suspended from the social media platform for impersonating Musk. However, she did return to Twitter via her late mother’s account to throw more shade at the new owner. These were not the only public figures to be banned, though, and it seems that Musk is remaining persistent in enforcing his new policy on the platform — despite the parody defense clearly not working as suggested.
It remains to be seen what will come of this impersonation drama, and who else will forgo their Twitter accounts to take a stand against Musk.
