It’s safe to say that the post-Elon Musk takeover version of Twitter is well on its way through the looking glass. So far, Musk’s leadership has largely resembled Sideshow Bob trying to walk through a parking lot full of rakes, and today yet another blatant celeb impersonation has smacked him firmly in the face.
Fast on the heels of a rash of celebrities impersonating Musk himself, including Kathy Griffin and H3H3’s Ethan Klein (who both got their accounts suspended) the company is facing a new wave of users impersonating other celebs. All it takes to do so, after all, is to have a verified account and simply change one’s name, as blue-checked user Cade Onder recently did to impersonate Spider-Man star Tobey McGuire.
Another verified user has similarly joined the new game by impersonating John Wick star Keanu Reeves. Actress Catherine Remdeen, who had a recurring role as hunter Annie “Alex” Jones on the long-running occult series Supernatural has taken advantage of her own Blue checkmark to strike a pose as the almost universally beloved Matrix actor. And like other impersonations, it’s fairly convincing at first glance.
The celebrity shell games appear to be a not so thinly veiled criticism of Musk’s proposed new policy regarding the platform’s verification process. Instead of going through any real attempt at ascertaining whether a user is who they say they are, Musk seeks to “democratize” the process by simply handing out checkmarks to whoever is willing to cough up his proposed $8 fee for the privilege of having a verified account. The fact that this will inevitably devalue any clout in having a checkmark in the first place doesn’t seem to be of any immediate concern to Twitter’s leadership — which at the moment is comprised solely of Musk himself.
For her part, Ramdeen’s ID switch appears to be a legitimate satire — she’s stated that she is not Reeves in a post. Ramdeen also seems to have a grievance against the company due to its current ties to the Saudi Arabian investment group Kingdom Holding Company, run by Saudi billionaire businessman and royal family member Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud.
Although Reeves’ fans maintain several accounts dedicated to him on Twitter, Reeves himself does not appear to use social media.