Elon Musk says he will restore suspended Twitter accounts starting next week

Twitter owner Elon Musk said Thursday that starting next week, he will begin restoring suspended accounts of users suspended for violations including violent threats, harassment, abuse and misinformation.

His move comes in response to a Twitter poll that asked: “Should Twitter give banned accounts a blanket amnesty, provided they haven’t broken the law or engaged in gross spam?” More than 72 percent of the 3 million respondents voted yes, which Musk asked. to explain: “The people have spoken. The amnesty starts next week.” The poll ended at 12:45 PM ET today.

Musk used a Twitter poll last week to make another key decision, the reactivation of former President Donald Trump’s account, which was suspended after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol claiming to be Trump’s account , after which he tweeted “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Latin for “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” Trump has so far declined the offer.

Shortly after Musk acquired Twitter in a $44 billion leveraged buyout, he sought to allay fears about the social media company’s direction by saying it would form a content moderation board.

“Twitter will create a moderation board for content with very diverse views,” the billionaire entrepreneur tweeted. “There will be no major substantive decisions or settlement of accounts until this council meets.” So far, there is no evidence that a content moderation board was formed or had any impact on Musk’s decisions.

Musk has previously said he disagrees with Twitter’s policy of permanent bans.

“The new Twitter policy is freedom of speech, not free speech,” Musk said in a tweet last week, adding: “Negative/hate tweets will be broken down and demoted to the max, so no ads or other revenue for Twitter.”