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November 8, 2022

Elon Musk and Kathy Griffin have virtual confrontation on Twitter

By Chad Wray

Elon Musk had a high-profile dispute with several celebrities over comedic parody and free speech on his newly acquired Twitter platform this past weekend, and Kathy Griffin appears to have borne the brunt of Musk's wrath in response.  Griffin, 62, was locked out of her Twitter account with over 2 million followers after joining Sarah Silverman, Valerie Bertinelli, and several other influencers on the site in a game of virtual poke the bear with Musk, tweeting from personal accounts after switching their names to Elon Musk to make it appear, to some, as though the messages were from Musk himself.  (The pranks were easily debunked once a user clicked on the tweeters' homepage.) 

Sarah Silverman posted a childish attempt at humor...

...while impersonating Musk and was given a warning about being in violation of Twitter's terms of service, leading her to quickly switch her account back to her name before any further action was taken, all while attempting (unsuccessfully) to strike up a legitimate conversation via tweets with Musk concerning accurate sources on the site.

Bertinelli tweeted that she was finished having fun and alluded to some point being made but said she was no longer enjoying the spotlight of "trending" on the platform and quickly switched her account back to her name as well.

Griffin, however, turned defiant and decided to escalate the confrontation with Musk, which did not end well for the notorious comedienne, who was fired by CNN from her New Year's Eve show with Anderson Cooper in 2017 for posting a picture of herself holding the severed head of then-president Donald Trump.

In a blatant attempt at election misinformation, Griffin used her remaining time impersonating Musk to tweet out messages urging readers to support Democrats and #VoteBlue this Tuesday.

That tweet seems to have been the final straw for Musk, as Griffin was soon locked out of her account, unable to access it or send messages.  And then that's when things got very strange.

While some users were celebrating the news of Griffin's banishment from the site...

...Griffin logged into her deceased mother's account and began tweeting at the ACLU, The Daily Beast, the Huffington Post, and a slew of other liberal accounts pleading for help.

Some on the left came to her defense and posted messages about "fascism" at work on the site...

...with a #FreeKathy hashtag, while others tweeted about a lack of free speech and accused Musk of not being able to take a joke.  But Musk showed his own sense of humor, tweeting to his 110 million followers that Griffin had been suspended for "impersonating a comedian"...

...and that she could have her blue check-mark account back if she paid the $8 monthly fee like everyone else.

Afterward, Griffin continued to antagonize Musk by changing her mother's account to impersonate him and began sending harassing tweets aimed at the Twitter boss.  So far, no action has been taken by Musk to suspend Griffin from site permanently.  However, Musk did send a signal that he definitely would not #VoteBlue in Tuesday's election.  Early Monday, Musk tweeted his support for Republicans in the midterms...

...and asked independent-minded voters to ensure that a Republican-controlled Congress be sent to Washington to balance the Democrat president in the White House.

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