X Announces New Requirements for Parody Accounts
After implementing âParody Accountâ labels back in December, X is now moving to make parody profiles even more visible in the app, with updated username requirements for joke accounts.
As explained by X:
âWeâre rolling out updates to improve transparency for Parody, Commentary, and Fan (PCF) accounts on our platform. Starting April 10, all PCF accounts will be required to include PCF-compliant keywords at the beginning of their account names and avoid using identical avatars to the entities they depict. These requirements also apply to accounts that have the Parody label.â
So if you wanted to create an Elon Musk parody profile, for example, youâll no longer be allowed to use the same profile image that Elon does, and youâll have to add a specific keyword at the start of your account name for clarity.
So what keyword/s do you have to include?
As per Xâs expanded guidance, parody accounts will now have to include “parody,” “fake,” “fan,” or “commentary” at the beginning of their account name.
So again, using the Elon example, your account would need to be called âFake Elon Muskâ or âParody Elon Muskâ, and use a totally different avatar image than Elonâs actual profile.
The requirement of adding this to the start of the profile name means that it will still be visible even if the profile name is truncated in the feed display. Because at present, a profile name like âElon Musk (parody)â will often cut off that last element in feed, causing confusion.
X also notes that these still apply, even if your account already has the âParodyâ label:
Which all makes sense, and will ensure greater transparency, and clarity in the app.
But then again, all of this wouldnât be necessary at all if X had just kept Twitterâs original verification process, and only given blue checkmarks to official, human-verified accounts, which then ensured that impersonators and parody profiles stood out.
For some reason, Elonâs first big brain wave in reforming the platform was to sell checkmarks to all users, because everybody wanted one, and would therefore, at least in Elonâs mind, likely pay up just to have that marker of authority.
But by selling it to anyone, that value is immediately eroded, as itâs no longer a signal of relative authority or importance, itâs just a signal that youâre willing to pay for a free app.
Of course, Twitterâs old verification was also flawed, in that the company had been applying different interpretations of what verification represented in different regions. But it was better than this, with Elonâs X team having to continually reform its systems in order to limit misuse and misinterpretation because of this update.
And also, very few people are paying. X Premium has around 1.3 million subscribers, and thatâs even with the lure of advanced access to its Grok AI chatbot and other features. 1.3 million subscribers equates to 0.22% of Xâs recently claimed 600 million monthly actives, so only a fraction of Xâs user base has felt any compulsion to pay up.
But then again, even 1.3 million subscribers, thatâs still a relevant revenue stream for the app. So the situation being what it is, this is likely a necessary improvement.
As X notes, the changes go into effect on April 10th.
