There can be only one Elon Musk, Twitter rules

Twitter users who put 'Elon Musk' in their handles are being locked out of the platform.

The Tesla billionaire's made headlines in recent weeks for his increasingly erratic behaviour on the social media site, including calling a cave rescue expert a "pedo" and getting into a spat over a mug bearing a picture of a farting unicorn.

With controversy comes clicks, and scammers posing as Mr Musk have been piggybacking on the publicity to trick people into sending them cryptocurrency.

Using the handle 'Elon Musk' and the same profile picture, the scammers' modus operandi has been to jump into comment threads and offer free money or Tesla cars as a way to apologise for the real Mr Musk's indiscretions.

But it seems Twitter has caught on. Users have noticed anyone without a verified account - a blue tick for public figures and companies, showing the social media site has verified they are legit - who puts 'Elon Musk' into their handle gets an instant ban.

"Your account appears to have exhibited unusual behaviour that violates the Twitter Rules," a message reads, with instructions on how to unlock it - passing an online test known as a reCAPTCHA and verifying their phone number.

"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," the social media site said in a statement, without referring to Mr Musk by name.

"We are continually refining these detections based on changes in spammy activity."

Elon Musk.
Elon Musk. Photo credit: Getty

It's not clear if the crackdown is triggered by just Mr Musk's name, or other popular celebrities on the site - such as Donald Trump or Justin Bieber.

Some users complained that Twitter should be focusing less on scammers and more on Nazis.

"They have the technology to clamp down on Nazis using Nazi buzzwords to organize. They could do that. They chose not to," said @1aprildaniels, in a tweet that's been shared more than 32,000 times."

"They already block Nazis in Germany where it's a legal requirement. They just choose not to do so elsewhere," wrote @Alby.

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