Elon Musk announces the reinstatement of suspended accounts on Twitter

To the question, published Wednesday in the form of a poll on his account, of whether Twitter should offer a "blanket amnesty to suspended accounts as long as they haven't broken the law or sent spam in an outrageous manner," 72.4 percent of some 3.16 million people said "yes."

 

"The people have spoken, amnesty begins next week," Musk tweeted Thursday, a holiday in the United States for the Thanksgiving holiday, accompanying his post with the message "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" ("The voice of the people is the voice of God »).

It is with this same expression that he had, Saturday, rehabilitated the account of former U.S. President Donald Trump, banned from the social network after the assault on the Capitol in Washington in January 2021.

 

The leader of Tesla and SpaceX had taken this decision following a similar consultation on the network with the blue bird, a method with uncertain representativeness. A narrow majority (51.8%) of the 15 million voters had expressed themselves in favor of a return of the Republican billionaire, who has not tweeted since the restoration of his account.

Elon Musk has repeatedly explained that he bought Twitter because he sees the platform as the "digital public square" essential to democracy in the world.

 

The richest man in the world considers content moderation to be too restrictive, but his absolutist vision of freedom of expression has led to fears of a flood of abuse (disinformation, hate speech) on the social network.

 

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