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Elon Musk’s social networking platform X has introduced stricter regulations regarding parody, commentary, and fan accounts, also known as PCF accounts. It is a term that refers to accounts that mimic another user or individual. This policy will go into force on Thursday, April 10, 2025.
All PCF accounts will have to include PCF-compliant keywords at the start of their account names. PCF accounts must also refrain from using avatars that are an exact match of the entities they represent or mimic. X’s new regulations make it mandatory for every PCF account to have “parody” or “fake” at the beginning of their account names.
The company says it is still working on strengthening regulations on PCF accounts and will be issuing more information soon on this subject. The policy revision aims to lessen the spate of impersonations as well removing uncertainties about the ownership of accounts. It is also seeking to help users understand the unaffiliated nature of PCF accounts. “We encourage all affected accounts to update their profiles,” said X.
Furthermore, the platform encouraged other users to report accounts that they suspected to be impersonating or misleading other users. Elon Musk is one example of a character whose parody and fan accounts have proliferated on X. These parody accounts post anything from jokes and memes to advertisements for cars and Bitcoin. One of these fake accounts has more than one million followers.
The stricter regulations for PCF accounts are based on X’s January announcement of its authenticity policy. The policy prohibits users from creating, managing, or mass-registering accounts on X that are not authentic, legitimate and truthful. The policy stated that these illegitimate and scripted accounts, which have fake identities or impersonations of other people and groups, are often created to mislead or defraud people.
Social Media Giants Fiercely Combating Impersonations
X added profile labels for parody accounts in January. Bluesky, X’s new rival, also revealed its own PCF account labels in November of last year. Meta, Facebook’s parent company also recently took measures to curb impersonations on its platform. One of the new measures includes a restriction on accounts with the Meta Verified Badge from making alterations to their accounts.
X has always taken a tough stance against impersonations. Musk stated in a tweet three years ago that any user who impersonates another person would be permanently suspended by the platform, which was then known as Twitter.
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