Comedian Griffin, who ramped up her criticism of Musk since he took over Twitter, was banned from the platform in early November 2022, after changing her screen name to that of the billionaire’s, violating the terms of service on impersonating others.
In the immediate aftermath, the TV personality, 62, briefly used the account of her late mother, Maggie Griffin, who died in 2020. The account, which had been inactive since 2019, was controlled by Kathy Griffin when her mother was alive.
Days after her ban from the platform, Griffin’s account was reinstated, along with those of men’s rights activist Jordan Peterson and satire website the Babylon Bee—both of which were reportedly suspended for transphobic tweets—and former President Donald Trump, who has yet to use his reinstated account.
However, Griffin, whose verification check mark has now been taken away, initially responded to the news by locking her account and defecting to other platforms.
Over the past month, Kathy Griffin has made a gradual return to Twitter. While her account remains locked—with no profile picture on display—she is continuing to weigh in on, and react to, matters pertaining to politics, entertainment and animals.
In a post shared on the platform on Sunday, Kathy Griffin admitted that she is enjoying using Twitter again, even if she does so in relatively low-key fashion.
“Shhhh. Big secret,” she wrote in a tweet viewed by Newsweek. “Because I had to lock my account due to maga and elon cult members, I am thoroughly enjoying Twitter again. I don’t know how many people I am reaching and I don’t care. It feels like Twitter 10 years ago. I love communicating with you guys.”
When one of her 2 million followers asked why they couldn’t retweet her posts earlier this month, Kathy Griffin said that she “had to lock my account and make it go private because of all the harassment from Maga types, and Elon musk, cult members.”
In an essay for Newsweek, published in December, Griffin said she had already been “planning to leave Twitter after the midterms because it had just gotten too ‘Musk-y.’”
“I contacted the folks at Post, the new social media app, and I’m there now,” she said at the time. “I’m also trying TikTok and we’ll see if a new type of Twitter emerges, because I do like having a platform that is more word-oriented. I was shamefully addicted to Twitter, it was hard for me not to keep checking it.”
Shortly after she was banned from Twitter in November, the Suddenly Susan star tweeted “#FreeKathy,” a hashtag that she added to other tweets and one that was shared by a host of supporters, including Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.
But while “#FreeKathy” moved its way up the trending list, showing what appeared to be widespread support for the TV personality’s account to be reinstated, she also faced backlash from a number of detractors for using her mother’s account.
In her essay for Newsweek, Griffin said that Musk suspended her from Twitter for “impersonating him―I changed my account name to Elon Musk and tweeted pro-choice comments and ‘#VoteBlueToProtectWomen.’ Enough people clearly thought it was real.”
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