Twitter: Musk asks his followers about a “general amnesty” for banned accounts

What if Twitter lived to the rhythm of the polls launched by Elon Musk?

After the restoration of Donald Trump's account, after a first poll, the new boss of Twitter published a new one this Wednesday calling on Internet users to decide on a "general amnesty" for all those whose Twitter account has been suspended.

“Should Twitter offer a blanket amnesty to suspended accounts, as long as they haven't broken the law or sent outrageous spam?

Yes / No “asked the billionaire.

Out of more than 1.7 million votes, at 10:30 p.m., the “yes” vote largely won at 72%, with 20 hours left before the end of the votes.

Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022

Elon Musk has already rehabilitated on Saturday the account of former US President Donald Trump, banned from the social network after the assault on the Capitol in Washington in January 2021. “The people have spoken.

Trump will be reinstated, ”he tweeted after 15 million accounts responded to his poll on the return of the Republican multi-billionaire, including 51.8% in favor of “yes”.

The boss of Tesla and SpaceX has repeatedly explained that he bought Twitter because he considers the platform to be the "digital public square" essential to democracy in the world.

He believes that content moderation is too restrictive and undermines freedom of expression.

This vision raises fears of a surge of abuse (misinformation, hate speech) on the social network.

Musk under pressure from advertisers

Many brands have already suspended advertising spending, on which Twitter depends 90% for revenue.

The entrepreneur first tried to appease them, promising in particular not to make any decision on the reinstatement of banned accounts before the creation of a “content moderation council with very diverse points of view”.

“A broad coalition of social and political activists agreed not to try to kill Twitter by draining our ad revenue on this condition,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

But "they broke the agreement", he added, as a justification for the reinstatement of the accounts of several personalities ousted from the platform for having broken its rules.

Elon Musk is widely criticized for his decisions at the helm of Twitter, from mass layoffs to the chaotic launch of new features.

He dismisses criticism several times a day on his account with 118 million subscribers with memes, emoticons, provocations, personal attacks and pirouettes.