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X is bringing in stricter rules around parody accounts.<\/p>\n
From 10 April, accounts which impersonate another user or person must use key words such as “fake” or “parody” at the start of their account names.<\/p>\n
The platform will also require parody account holders to use different images to the X accounts belonging to those they seek to represent.<\/p>\n
Some users have complained about confusion caused by parody accounts on the platform, such as those impersonating its owner Elon Musk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“These changes are designed to help users better understand the unaffiliated nature of PCF accounts and reduce the risk of confusion or impersonation,” the company said in a post on Saturday<\/a>. <\/p>\n It encouraged affected accounts to update their profiles by the enforcement date.<\/p>\n The changes will also apply for fan and commentary accounts, it said.<\/p>\n “Hopefully this includes all the thousands of fake variations of Elon Musk accounts,” wrote one user in response to X’s post about its policy update.<\/p>\n “About time, I get a fake Elon account contacting me almost once a week,” wrote another.<\/p>\n There are a number of parody accounts for the platform’s owner, identifying themselves as impersonations in various ways.<\/p>\n Posts viewed by the BBC from Elon Musk parody accounts ranged from memes and jokes, to promoting cryptocurrency and car giveaways.<\/p>\n A recent post by one Elon Musk parody account, which has more than one million followers, told users to “like and comment” for the chance to win a Tesla.<\/p>\n The post has received 428,000 likes and more than 200,000 replies.<\/p>\n X rolled out labels for parody accounts in January – building on its rules requiring<\/a> users engaging in impersonation for the purpose of entertainment to identify themselves as such.<\/p>\n These, and the platform’s blue tick verification system, have been cited as tools to prevent misleading impersonation while allowing speech and discussion.<\/p>\n But the effectiveness of such measures have been disputed.<\/p>\n The EU said in July 2024 that the blue ticks breached its online content rules, with its “verified” blue tick accounts having the potential to “deceive” users<\/a>.<\/p>\n Musk called the EU’s rules “misinformation”, in response.<\/p>\n Following his takeover in November 2022, the Tesla chief executive said accounts engaging in unlabelled impersonation would be banned<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many parody accounts on X identify their parody nature in brackets at the end of user names, but this is not a fool-proof measure.<\/p>\n If a parody account’s name is particularly long, and only a shortened version appears in feeds or replies, users can unwittingly duped – especially if the account’s image matches that of the real person.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n