Donald Trump could tweet again if he wanted to, now other blocked users should get their accounts back too. That’s what Elon Musk announced after he had the question voted on. However, the survey results should not be entirely reliable.
The new Twitter boss Elon Musk has announced the blanket release of suspended Twitter accounts. “The people have spoken. The amnesty begins next week,” Musk said on Thursday. In a survey on the platform, a clear majority of users had previously spoken out in favor of activation. According to Musk, accounts of users who have violated the law or are responsible for “outrageous spam” are excluded.
Of the 3.16 million survey participants, 72.4 percent said Twitter should allow blocked accounts again. Musk had asked Twitter users if they were “for or against a general amnesty” for suspended accounts. Polls on Twitter are open to all users and can be used by fake accounts and bots. After 45 minutes, 700,000 accounts had already voted, almost three quarters of them for a general amnesty.
Just last week, a similar poll led to the unblocking of ex-President Donald Trump’s profile. A few days after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was condemned by the platform, actually permanently. Of more than 15 million participants, 51.8 percent voted for a return for Trump. The account of the ex-president, who had entered the race for the 2024 presidential election a few days earlier, was then released again on Saturday. So far, however, Trump has made no move to use it.
A blanket amnesty for suspended accounts could alert authorities, who have been closely monitoring Musk’s handling of hate mail since he bought the influential online network for $44 billion. Advertisers should also be watching the consequences with interest. Some big companies like General Mills and Ford withdrew their ads in the first few days after the takeover.
Twitter had unblocked other controversial Twitter profiles in recent days, including the accounts of psychologist Jordan Peterson and conservative parody site Babylon Bee, which made fun of transgender people. Musk said on Sunday that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should not be allowed to return to Twitter.
