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Updated November 25th, 2022 at 10:22 IST

'People have spoken': Elon Musk grants ‘amnesty’ for nearly all banned Twitter accounts

Elon Musk stated that all Twitter accounts which were suspended previously will be allowed to be back on the Twitter platform after he tweeted an informal poll.

Reported by: Saumya Joshi
Elon Musk
Image: AP/Unsplash | Image:self
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Elon Musk stated that all Twitter accounts which were suspended previously will be allowed to be back on the Twitter platform after he tweeted an informal poll question to which many voted "yes". This announcement and his stunt tweet were made after the Twitter chief faced a pushback that his criteria for content moderation were subject to his personal whim, with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others. The poll question was, "Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?" Out of 3,162,112 votes on a poll question,  72.4 percent voted in favor and 27.6% voted no. Later, after he got a landslide response from his followers on the informal poll question, he tweeted again and wrote, "The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week, Vox Populi, Vox Dei," which means the voice of the people is the voice of God.

Elon Musk and his Twitter 'Game'

Earlier, the same kind of poll question was posted by Musk to reinstate former president Donald Trump's account on the platform and after a narrow majority of respondents supported the move, Trump's Twitter account was activated on November 19. Now, the same pattern is being used to reinstate suspended Twitter accounts. This step might alarm government authorities that keep a close check on Musk's activity in handling hate speech. This could also spook the tech firms like google and apple which have the power to ban Twitter from their mobile app stores over content concerns. Musk, with 118 million followers, has no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame. 

In the future, content moderation on Twitter has become a more important issue as major advertisers are away from the site after the failed relaunch because of fake accounts which were really an embarrassment. Meanwhile, Musk-led layoffs have a worse effect on the platform as half of the total employees leave the company.  A media professor at Northeastern University, John Wihbey has acclaimed that all the chaos might be because Musk is seeking to "buy himself time." He further added, "Regulators are certainly going to come after him, both in Europe and maybe the United States... and therefore a lot of what he's doing is trying to frame those fights." 

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Published November 25th, 2022 at 10:22 IST

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