Elon Musk would then implement a general suspension of banned Twitter accounts.
Cheers, Rejected from Twitter! For the hour of redemption is at hand. That has the “Chief Twit” announced after a query through his own account.
Everyone welcome (again).
Last week, the new CEO posted a poll with the question of whether there should be a general amnesty for banned accounts. Unless they have done something illegal or are guilty of rigorous spam. Those accounts are out of luck. For the time being. About 3.2 million accounts responded and ‘yes’ won with a striking majority of over 72%.
Musk then tweeted that the people have spoken and that the amnesty would come the next (so now this) week. Closed by ‘Vox Populi. Vox Dei’, Latin for ‘The voice of the people. The voice of God.’. It wasn’t the first time he used that expression.
Donald Trump
A few days earlier, former US President Donald Trump had already been there liberated from his ban. Even after one poll through Elon Musk’s account. Presumably for appearances, he had already announced in advance that he would reverse that decision. No fewer than 15.1 million people voted, with a small majority of 51.8% in favor of the return of the ex-Commander In Chief. After that inquiry, the Latin phrase already a first time.
Trump was banned early last year after storming the Capitol, fearing his Tweets would provoke even more violence. The Donald, however, was not impressed by Musk’s gesture and declared to remain with Truth Social. That is the platform he founded after his ban. For now, Trump appears to be a man of his word: the latest message on the account is still that he will not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration. Still striking for someone who used to flood Twitter daily with his thoughts and opinions.
Also back
Number 45 (or the 45th president of the US) is not the only one whose ban has been lifted. Some well-known and notorious names have now had their access to “the blue bird” restored.
The most notable of these, of course, is Trump’s close friend and self-proclaimed genius Kanye “Ye” West. The rapper was only banned last month for anti-Semitic comments. He announced his return with ‘Shalom : )’…
Former kickboxer Andrew Tate also has his account back. That ban came because of a series of unmistakable misogynistic messages. The man, who also believes that depression does not exist, is still not allowed on other platforms for the time being.
It’s not just individuals in this list, the conservative Christian satirical website The Babylon Bee is now allowed to send tweets out into the world again. They were banned on Twitter after they voted Rachel Levine, US Deputy Health Secretary and trans woman, as man of the year. They then just had to delete that tweet to rejoin, but refused. However, that was not a condition for Elon Musk. The tweet is still there.
A striking name in this, let’s be honest, questionable list, is comedienne Kathy Griffin. She was one of the people who had “impersonated” Elon Musk for fun in the recent chaos with the blue tick. Something you can read more about here. Griffin does not shy away from controversy anyway. She was already in the eye of a storm after a post with a fake Donald Trump head cut off in 2017. For now, she is the only digital Musk impersonator whose ban has been lifted, but that could soon change.
Without hate
If this amnesty actually comes into effect, it will be interesting to see what this means for Twitter and its users. Musk tweeted before the weekend that hate messages fell by a third from the normal number. However, after a striking peak was first registered. It remains to be seen whether that trend can continue when all banned accounts are allowed to do their thing again.
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