Elon Musk said Friday that Twitter planned to restore several controversial accounts that had previously been banned or suspended, but added that the company had not yet made a decision regarding former President Donald Trump’s account.
The announcement follows a Tweeter in which Musk attempted to clarify what the platform’s content moderation policies will be under his leadership.
“Twitter’s new policy is freedom of expression, not freedom of access,” Musk said in the tweet, echoing an approach that’s somewhat of an industry standard. “Negative/hateful tweets will be deboosted and demonetized to the max, so no ads or other revenue for Twitter.”
musk too tweeted a poll asking users whether or not he should reinstate the former president on the platform. The survey received thousands of responses and was still live at the time of this story.
Musk said controversial Canadian podcaster Jordan Peterson and right-wing satire website Babylon Bee, who were both previously banned from the platform, would have their accounts restored. He added that comedian Kathy Griffin, who was suspended from the platform earlier this month for impersonating Musk, would have her account restored.
The billionaire Twitter owner previously said he would delay deciding on Trump, who this week announced his intention to run for president in 2024, and other major content-related decisions until a ” content moderation board” is in place to help make these calls.
The announcement comes as Musk grapples with the fallout after dozens of Twitter employees opted out of the company after being given an ultimatum this week to pledge to work ‘extremely hard’ or leave. Users and some employees wondered if the platform could go down after Thursday’s releases, which included key infrastructure engineers as well as prominent roles in finance, user security and other areas of the business. , according to the employee tweet.
