Twitter boss Elon Musk on Monday, November 7, sent a warning shot to Twitter users, including Kenyans, running parody accounts.
Musk announced that all Twitter handles dealing with impersonation without indicating that it is a parody will be permanently suspended. This, he revealed, will happen without a single warning.
“Previously, we issued a warning before the suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning,” read part of his tweet.
As a result, this new rule saw American comedian Kathy Graffin losing her account for impersonating Elon Musk.
Griffin had changed her name to Elon Musk and was taking advantage of inciting people to vote for Democrats in Tuesday's Midterm elections.
Clearing the air, Musk stated that she was actually suspended from Twitter for impersonating a comedian.
He went further to explain that she could have her account back but at a charge of Ksh953.
Parody accounts in Kenya have been a major concern with many people have been victims of scams.
On Sunday, November 6, Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) warned Kenyans of parody accounts impersonating President William Ruto and first lady Rachel Ruto carrying out online scams.
The scammers have been using the accounts to dupe innocent Kenyans that they are in a position of giving jobs and financial assistance.
One suspect was arrested after he was caught operating a pseudo Facebook account purporting to be an employee of the Office of the First Lady.
He posed as a loans officer who would influence the issuance of quick loans and went ahead to obtain thousands from desperate Kenyans, who approached him for assistance
“Kenyans are advised to be wary of such social media accounts and are cautioned not to send money to anyone in order to influence favours.
The Office of the First Lady operates a verified Facebook account and members of the public are cautioned against being misled by information published from other unverified pseudo accounts,” DCI stated.
