Elon Musk says he will start restoring nearly all banned Twitter accounts

Elon Musk said Thursday that he will start restoring almost all previously banned accounts on Twitter starting next week, in his most wide-reaching move yet to undo the social media platform’s policy of permanently suspending users who repeatedly violated its rules. The consequential policy change follows a poll of Musk’s followers and comes just days after he reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump after conducting a similar survey.

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“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Musk carried out a poll among his followers about whether to offer “general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.”

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The poll closed around 12:45 Eastern Time on Thursday. It finished with 72.4% voting in favor of the proposition and 27.6% voting against it. The poll received more than 3 million votes on Twitter.

Musk reinstated Trump’s account minutes after a poll closed on Thursday asking whether the former president’s ban should be lifted, with 51.8% of more than 15 million votes in favour of allowing Trump back.

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Twitter has reinstated several suspended accounts since Musk took over the platform last month, including profiles for firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), rapper Kayne West, conservative Canadian psychologist and podcaster Jordan Peterson, and the conservative satirical website the Babylon Bee. However, hard-right activists are looking for much broader reinstatements, including for accounts suspended for hate speech or sharing misinformation.

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Currently, it is not clear how Musk and his team at Twitter will sort out which accounts had been banned for illegal or spam content against other violations.

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Shortly after taking over Twitter, Musk said he would create a “content moderation council” with “widely diverse viewpoints.” He added that no major content decisions would be made until it was in place. It is not immediately clear that such a group has been formed or was involved in Musk’s platforming decisions.