Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, said on Thursday that he is offering “amnesty” to suspended accounts. Online safety experts expect that this will lead to an increase in harassment, hate speech, and disinformation.
The declaration was made after the billionaire posted a poll on his timeline requesting votes on the reinstatement of accounts that had not “broken the law or participated in flagrant spam.” 72% of voters said yes.
Should Twitter provide suspended accounts a universal amnesty if they have not violated the law or participated in severe spam?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022
“The public has spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Musk tweeted the Latin phrase Vox Populi, Vox Dei, which means “the voice of the people, the voice of God.””
Musk used the same Latin phrase after publishing a similar poll last weekend and before to restoring the account of former President Donald Trump, which Twitter had suspended for supporting the January 6, 2021 Capitol uprising. Trump has stated that he will not return to Twitter, yet his account has not been removed.
Such internet surveys are everything from scientific and are extremely susceptible to bot manipulation.
In reaction to Musk’s decision to reinstate Trump’s posting privileges, a number of human rights organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Anti-Defamation League, are pushing advertisers to boycott Twitter. The groups assert that Musk violated his prior promise to establish a “content control council” prior to restoring problematic accounts.
Advertisers such as Mondelez, Allianz, Audi, General Mills, GM, United Airlines, and Pfizer have suspended their adverts on Twitter, resulting in what Musk described earlier this month as a “huge decline” in income.
Elon Musk’s tweets shed additional insight on his Tesla leadership. 05:37
After acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, the inventor of Tesla announced in late October that he would establish a council with “widely different opinions” and that no one with a suspended account would be permitted to return to the network until the council could convene. However, Trump’s account was reinstated without the council’s participation.
Twitter has restored banned accounts belonging to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, comedian Kathy Griffin, psychologist Jordan Peterson, and Ye, formerly Kanye West.
»Elon Musk is granting suspended Twitter accounts amnesty«