Kathy Griffin defies Twitter ban by using late mum’s account

American actress Kathy Griffin has been condemned for using her late mother’s Twitter handle to attack Elon Musk after being suspended from the platform.

Kathy Griffin snuck back onto Twitter by taking over her late mum’s account — calling new owner Elon Musk an “a–hole” for joking that she’d been “suspended for impersonating a comedian.”

Broadcaster Piers Morgan slammed the star’s move, describing her behaviour as “despicable”.

Even by Kathy Griffin’s deplorably low standards, tweeting abuse from her dead mother’s account is despicable. https://t.co/49WWUPtiXk

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 7, 2022

Griffin, 62, was suspended Sunday for challenging the site’s policy against impersonation by changing her profile name to “Elon Musk” without making clear it was parody.

Self-appointed “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator” Musk confirmed the suspension with a savage roast, the New York Post reports.

“Actually, she was suspended for impersonating a comedian,” he wrote in reply to someone sharing the news.

“But if she really wants her account back, she can have it … For $8,” he said in a pair of tweets referring to his new monthly fee for users who want the blue tick verifying their accounts.

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Kathy Griffin has evaded her Twitter suspension, which Elon Musk joked was for “impersonating a comedian,” by using her late mum’s account. Picture: David Livingston/Getty Images

Elon Musk roasted Griffin by saying she was “suspended for impersonating a comedian.” He said that “if she really wants her account back, she can have it … For $8.”

The world’s richest man also replied with a laughing emoji when another Twitter user pretending to be Griffin — clearly marked “PARODY,” as per Twitter’s rules — quipped: “This is the first time I’ve made anyone laugh.”

The real Griffin, however, was not seeing the funny side as she posted a series of angry responses to her suspension from the account of her late mum, Maggie Griffin, who died at age 99 in March 2020.

She responded to a flurry of posts about her suspension — including Musk’s joke that she’d been “suspended for impersonating a comedian.”

Musk also laughed at a joke by someone pretending to be Griffin but — unlike the suspended comedian — doing so while making clear it was parody. Picture: Carina Johansen / NTB / AFP / Norway OUT

“I mean… you stole that joke, you a–hole. People have been posting that joke for hours, you hack,” she wrote.

“Look, please do a better job running this company. It used to mean something. This is KG btw.”

Griffin repeatedly used the hashtag #FreeKathy — just for others to reply with #pleasefreeusfromKathy.

Griffin was suspended for renaming her account “Elon Musk” without making clear it was a parody.

She also came up with a series of conspiracies for why she’d been suspended, rather than her clear violation of Musk’s policy trying to rid his new buy of impersonators and bots.

“I honestly think it’s because it’s me, and because the tweets I was trying to write in his voice were pro democrats and had hashtags like #VoteBlueToProtectWomen and #voteblue and pro [Beto O’Rourke],” she said, without any hint of proof.

She also suggested it might be, as another user wrote, because “suspending a female comedienne makes [Musk] feel like an important big man.”

Griffin snuck back on the site using her dead mum’s account, quickly calling Musk “an a–hole” for his roast.

“You nailed it. That’s what it’s really about,” Griffin insisted on her late mum’s account.

Griffin previously used her mum’s account during an earlier suspension, in 2019.

However, she risks getting her mum’s account suspended too because Twitter’s “ban evasion policy” clearly states that “Twitter reserves the right to also permanently suspend any other account we believe the same account holder or entity may be operating in violation of our earlier suspension, regardless of when the other account was created.”

Still, in her angry replies to users, she insisted she was doing nothing wrong.

“My wonderful mother had an account that I ran for her. She passed away, but I always kept the account. Trust me, she would be with me on this. Relax,” she wrote — throwing in another #FreeKathy.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission