Twitter will offer 'general amnesty' to suspended accounts after new Elon Musk poll
Suspended Twitter accounts that didn't break the law or engage in egregious spam will return to the platform
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Another Twitter change
🔙 Elon Musk says suspended accounts will be given general amnesty from November 27
🗳️ Musk held a poll asking users whether suspended accounts that hadn’t broken the law or engaged in egregious spam should be allowed to return
👍 Over 3 million people voted, with 72.4% saying ‘Yes’ and 27.6% saying ‘No’
🍊 Musk recently reinstated Donald Trump after 15 million people voted
Elon Musk has promised to bring back some suspended accounts as early as next week after holding another contentious Twitter poll.
Musk asked his 118 million Twitter followers whether suspended accounts that had not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam should be reactivated.
The poll received 3,162,112 votes, with the final outcome being 72.4% voting in favor of the idea and 27.6% voting against it.
As a result of the Poll, Musk promised to grant amnesty to previously suspended accounts from next week, November 27 onwards. It’s unclear how many accounts will return due to Musk’s decision, or how many will be subsequently banned again if they misbehave.
Musk quoted the same Latin phrase – Vox Populi, Vox Dei – after the poll finished, which means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
The Tesla CEO did the same after he reinstated Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, who still hasn’t posted a tweet. The poll to reinstate Trump drew more than 15 million votes and was a more closely fought contest with 51.8% voting ‘Yes’ for the former president to return.
However, it’s unlikely that Trump will ever tweet again. He took to Truth Social, his own social network, to say: “Truth Social has been very, very powerful, very, very strong, and I’ll be staying there.” Any activity on Twitter would ultimately harm Truth Social, which reportedly has two million active monthly users. Trump’s Twitter account has a total of 87.7 million followers currently.
The Twitter changes continue to come thick and fast, with Musk unbanning several controversial accounts and even banning free lunches at the company’s HQ. Soon Twitter will charge $8 a month for people to keep their verification checkmark.
The South African billionaire has shared more insight into how verification will work in the future after he delayed the role out of Twitter Blue Verified due to the fear of impersonation accounts. The company said new accounts will have to wait for 90 days to sign up for Twitter Blue, and conceded different color checkmarks will be used in the future to help users differentiate between bad actors and official accounts.