Elon Musk has warned that Twitter will permanently suspend any account on the social media platform that impersonates another.
The platform's new owner said that "going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended".
Previously, Twitter had issued warnings before suspensions, but Mr Musk said now that it was rolling out "widespread verification, there'll be no warning".
Twitter has started rolling out its new 'Twitter Blue' subscription service, which offers the "blue check" verification to everyone for $US8 ($12) a month.
In an update to Apple devices, Twitter says users who "sign up now" can receive the blue tick next to their names.
Musk, the 'free-speech absolutist'
After a lengthy process that involved Twitter suing Mr Musk to force him to complete the acquisition, Mr Musk bought the company for $US44 billion.
After the sale closed he tweeted "the bird is freed".
Mr Musk, a self-described "free speech absolutist", has repeatedly emphasised his goal for the platform is to champion free speech.
In the days following his acquisition, Mr Musk tweeted that "anyone suspended for minor and dubious reason will be free from Twitter jail".
The new CEO, who also runs electric vehicle company Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, said Twitter would form a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints".
Comedians parody Musk himself, get suspended
When Mr Musk also announced the new restrictions on impersonations, a number of accounts moved to test it out, changing their Twitter name to Elon Musk, copying his profile image and tweeting as though they were him.
American comedian Sarah Silverman changed her Twitter profile picture and name to match Mr Musk's before tweeting: "I am a freedom of speech absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast every day".
She tweeted a screenshot showing her account had been locked after she changed her account back to her own name and image.
Another US comedian, Kathy Griffin, was permanently suspended for doing the same.
Griffin, who once posed in a photoshoot with Donald Trump's decapitated head, tweeted about the US midterm elections under Mr Musk's name.
The Twitter CEO addressed Griffin's suspension, apparently joking that she was removed for "impersonating a comedian".
Mr Musk has said the crackdown on impersonator accounts is all part of his mission for Twitter to become "by far the most accurate source of information about the world".
He has also doubled down on his commitment to "free speech".
"My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk," he said.
The account @Elonjet is a bot account that tracks the billionaire's private jet and his almost daily trips across the United States.
A political endorsement and a flurry of drastic measures
On Monday, Mr Musk used his Twitter account to appeal to "independent-minded voters", urging them to vote Republican in Tuesday's midterm elections.
"Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic," he tweeted.
While the billionaire has expressed his political views in the past, on and off the platform, a direct endorsement of one party over another raises questions about Twitter’s ability to remain neutral.
The endorsement also comes after Mr Musk's comments in April that Twitter should be "politically neutral".
"For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally," he tweeted.
But the political endorsement is only the latest in a series of changes being implemented at the company.
The first measure came as soon as Mr Musk became CEO when he cut half of Twitter's workforce, including many executives.
Australian Twitter employees were locked out of the company's systems on Friday, though some said they hadn't received an official notice about their employment.
Then it was announced Twitter would begin charging $US8 for the sought-after blue verification tick.
As part of Twitter Blue's offerings, the subscription will include long-form video content and fewer ads, the company's website said.
Some advertisers have pulled spending since Mr Musk's takeover and reports that he planned to sack staff raised concerns about the spread of hate speech and misinformation on the website.
The new CEO blamed pressure from activist groups concerned about its content moderation for influencing advertisers' decisions.
Since becoming a publicly traded company in 2013, Twitter has only made a profit twice, in 2018 and 2019.
Last year Twitter made $US5 billion, with advertising making up the vast majority of revenue.
ABC/AP
