Do not be fooled by twitter’s excellent elon musk impersonators

Photo: Twitter Elon Musk’s Twitter is verified. You can find him and his little blue check mark tweeting about SpaceX, Tesla, and, that one time, about how one of the rescue divers who saved

the Thai soccer team is a “pedo.” (These allegations were unfounded and lobbed after the diver said Musk’s much-lauded mini-sub was useless for the rescue mission and told him to shove it.)

He is not, to be clear, a crazed Frenchman wielding a baguette and sporting a mustache and a beret. That’s French Élon Musque, a very good parody account. > i dont have le time to help 

ze poor im too busy sticking my pénis > in Tesla™️ car charging ports > — French Élon Musque (@FMusque) July 28, 2018 > taxes are for Le Proletariat... not for moi... honhonhon >

 — French Élon Musque (@FMusque) July 27, 2018 > zey say the people in flint need water... but i need le rocket > ship... > — French Élon Musque (@FMusque) July 28, 2018 Musk is

also not an Italian dude with a plate of spaghetti and a different mustache. (This account, run by writer Alex Arbuckle, has since been taken down.) > Italian Elon Musk was deleted. Rest 

in pepperoni. > pic.twitter.com/MdShSOpWy5 > — FULL COMMUNISM (@LaterCapitalism) July 28, 2018 While this distinction between Musk and, well, not Musk should be easy enough, Twitter

has started cracking down on impersonators. Over the weekend, the Verge reported that the platform had begun automatically locking unverified accounts where the user changed the display name

to Elon Musk. This was done reportedly to tamp down on “cryptocurrency scammers” posing as Musk. “As part of our continuing efforts to combat spam and malicious activity on our service,

we’re testing new measures to challenge accounts that use terms commonly associated with spam campaigns. We are continually refining these detections based on changes in spammy activity,” a

Twitter spokesperson said. Sure, Twitter could absolutely do with fewer spam campaigns. That sounds nice. But also … this seems like a strange and limited choice of a problem to “fix” given

Twitter’s other, larger issues at present. (Twitter would not comment if this feature has been implemented for other famous Twitter users.) To continue mocking Musk, a user will have to

confirm their account — via phone number or email — before Twitter will unlock it. Please be sure to do this, all you current and future Musk parodists. Ze people of Twitter need you! > 

ze poor are sad because zey will starve... i am sad because i am > being made fun of on Le Internette > — French Élon Musque (@FMusque) July 28, 2018