Elon Musk to Restore Suspended Twitter Accounts Banned for Harassment, Misinformation

By Mary Webber Nov 24 2022, 21:05 PM EST

Elon Musk announced that he would be offering a "general amnesty" for suspended Twitter accounts beginning next week, following a majority of support in a poll on his account.

On Wednesday, Musk launched a poll asking if "general amnesty" should be given to suspended Twitter accounts if they have not "broken the law or engaged in egregious spam." However, he did not specify which laws he meant.

More than 3.1 million votes were recorded by the poll, with 72% in favor of an amnesty.

After the results, Musk tweeted that amnesty will "begin next week," adding "vox populi, vox Dei," which means the voice of the people is the voice of God.

The new Twitter CEO's announcement came days after he reinstated Donald Trump's account, as well as accounts for Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate, who was banned on Twitter in 2017 for his extreme misogynistic views.

Campaign group The Center for Countering Digital Hate noted that "superspreaders" of hateful content would benefit from the said amnesty. The group then urged advertisers to "stop funding Twitter."

Suspended Twitter Accounts to Be Reinstated

Experts noted that bots and "bad actors" can easily skew the results of a Twitter poll, adding that basing decisions on one "is irresponsible."

An associate professor at UCLA and faculty director for UCLA's Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, Sarah T. Roberts, said that a "Twitter poll can be manipulated."

Roberts said that there is "nothing scientific or rigorous" in what Musk is doing. She has also previously worked at Twitter researching content moderation processes.

She added that there were entire teams of people who "did market and user research" before Musk took over. Now, Musk is running Twitter "off to completely unscientific polls that are polling unknown people."

A journalist in Africa, Hopewell Chin'ono, said that the move would be particularly disastrous in Africa "where State sponsored Ghosts accounts were suspended" for posing a danger to human rights activists and journalists.

Chin'ono then said, "you will have blood on your hands," tagging Musk's Twitter handle.

Chairman and president of Media Matters, Angelo Carusone, said revising the suspensions would mean turning Twitter "into a one-stop shop for operationalizing doxing and harassment."

Dozens of Twitter's advertisers have postponed spending with the social media platform amid Musk's takeover.

Twitter Under Elon Musk

Musk's net worth is dropping, with the tech billionaire losing more than $101 billion so far by 2022. However, he is still considered the world's richest man.

Last year, his recorded personal fortune was at $340 billion. Currently, he has $169.8 billion.

It would mean that he is losing more than $400 million every single day so far this year. The losses come after Tesla stocks reached their lowest levels in two years.

A number of Twitter's advertisers have also backed away from their spending. Advertising makes up 90% of Twitter's current revenue.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Elon Musk's New Twitter Poll Is On "General Amnesty" To Suspended Accounts - from NDTV