Elon Musk: Twitter to grant ‘amnesty’ to banned accounts next week

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• New Twitter owner Elon Musk announced he planned on granting “amnesty” to suspended accounts starting next week.
• The move comes after 72.4% of Twitter users voted “yes” in a Twitter poll created by the billionaire.
• Civil rights activists urged advertisers to boycott Twitter after the reinstatement of former President Donald Trump’s account on the platform.

Elon Musk said Thursday that Twitter will grant amnesty for suspended accounts beginning next week after holding a vote. 

In a poll shared on Wednesday, Musk asked users whether Twitter should offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, “provided they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” 

An overwhelming 72.4% of Twitter users voted in the affirmative with more than 3 million respondents.

“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week,” Musk tweeted, adding: “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” a Latin phrase meaning the “voice of the people is the voice of God.” 

The new Twitter boss polled users last Friday asking his supporters if former President Donald Trump should be allowed back on Twitter after he was banned in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

Trump has said he won’t return to Twitter but has not deleted his account.

On Oct. 28, the day after he took control, Musk tweeted that no suspended accounts would be reinstated until Twitter formed a “content moderation council” with diverse viewpoints that would consider the cases.

On Tuesday, he said he was reneging on that promise because he’d agreed to it at the insistence of “a large coalition of political-social activists groups” who later “broke the deal” by urging that advertisers at least temporarily stop giving Twitter their business.

A day earlier, Twitter reinstated the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who was banned earlier this year. Twitter has also reinstated Jordan Peterson, and the Babylon Bee. 

Musk has ruled out reinstating Alex Jones, writing: “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

Source: Associated Press