Kathy Griffin Suspended From Twitter After She Mocked Elon Musk

On Sunday, comedian and LGBTQ+ icon Kathy Griffin's Twitter account was suspended for mocking Elon Musk, the new owner of the social media platform.

To draw attention to the flaws in Musk's plan to provide anyone who pays $7.99 with a verified checkmark on the site, Griffin changed her Twitter profile photo and display name to mimic Musk's. In her tweets, she mocked the billionaire, still struggling to decide what direction to take the $44 billion purchase he made.

"I've decided that voting blue for [reproductive] choice is only right," she tweeted as Musk.

Twitter suspended Griffin's account on Sunday afternoon.

Early Sunday evening, Musk tweeted, "Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended." He added that any change of one's Twitter name would "cause temporary loss of verified checkmark."

Within a day of purchasing Twitter on October 28, Musk, who claims to take the position of a "free speech absolutist," tweeted, "Comedy is now legal on Twitter."

Many of the billionaire's critics argue that his move to ban a comedian belies that assertion.

In advance of Musk's newest restrictions announcement, many celebrities and other users changed their profiles to look like Musk's.

A day prior, actress Valerie Bertinelli had changed her profile name to Elon Musk to prove that the platform's new verification system was deficient.

"The blue checkmark simply meant your identity was verified. Scammers would have a harder time impersonating you," Bertinelli tweeted on Saturday, "That no longer applies. Good luck out there!"

Tweeting hashtags like #VoteBlueToProtectYourRights as Musk, the 62-year-old Golden Globe-winner further made her point on Twitter.

Shortly before 1 p.m. EST Sunday, after trending on Twitter for hours, Bertinelli tweeted that she was done with the joke and changed her name back.

"Okey-dokey I've had my fun and I think I made my point. I'm just not a 'trending' kind of gal. Never have been, never want to be. Have a safe Sunday everyone! xo," Bertinelli wrote.

Musk mocked Griffin Sunday, claiming that "she was suspended for impersonating a comedian."

However, at 9:50 p.m. EST the wealthiest man in the world tweeted that "if she really wants her account back, she can have it," before adding three minutes later, "for $8."

The Emmy, Grammy, and GLAAD Vanguard Award-winning comedian's account remained suspended Monday morning.