Kathy Griffin has been suspended from Twitter.
The 62-year-old comic’s account on the platform, @KathyGriffin, has been taken down after she “violated the rules” of the social media app by changing her screen name to that of new Twitter owner Elon Musk.
The message users receive when visiting her page states: “Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter rules.”
During her stint with her fake name, Kathy urged users to #VoteBlue and also look at Twitter competitor Mastodon.
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One of her tweets under the name change read: “After much spirited discussion with the females in my life, I’ve decided that voting blue for their choice is only right. (They’re also sexy females, btw.) #VoteBlueToProtectWomen (sic)”.
It’s unclear if Griffin will be back on the platform, because Musk later issued a warning that those attempting to impersonate him or others, without making it obvious their accounts are spoofs, face being “permanently suspended”.
He tweeted: “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.
“Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.
“This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue.”
In addition, he said, those with verified account will lose their checkmark if they change their names in any way: “Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark.”
Griffin admitted her name-change gag had sparked a backlash and thanked her friends for visiting to check she was okay.
She wrote on Instagram: “I have the best friends in the world. So I’m trending on Twitter. Long story.
“Anyway I was getting lots of comments online from Elon musk cult members. Then DING DONG! The doorbell rang and there was Katherine Keener, Stephanie Koff and Rosanna Arquette!
“Just checking up on me. We hacked into my birthday cake again.(sic)”