Musk promises “amnesty” for suspended Twitter accounts

Twitter owner Elon Musk has announced he plans to reactivate accounts banned from the SMS service in the coming week.

Earlier, he let users vote on whether there should be a “general amnesty” for blocked accounts if they didn’t break the law or spread spam messages. A majority of the participating users spoke out in favor of reactivation. “The people have spoken. The amnesty starts next week,” Musk wrote in a tweet on Thursday night.

Such surveys are not representative. It is unclear whether and how many votes were cast from automated accounts. According to the latest information, the service has more than 230 million daily active users. At the end of the poll on Thursday night, more than 3.1 million votes had been received. More than 72 percent of them supported the activation of blocked accounts.

Decision without announced committee

Musk announced in late October that a council would be formed on how to deal with controversial content before Twitter accounts could be reactivated. Last weekend, the tech billionaire had former US President Donald Trump’s account activated after a commission-free user survey. Trump has been banned from Twitter since January 2021. On January 6, he expressed his condolences to his supporters who had stormed the seat of the US parliament.

The offensive tweets from January 6 are missing from the unlocked profile. Trump’s rebutted claims about the presidential election allegedly stolen from him by Joe Biden continue to contain cautionary tales.

Trump stayed with ‘Truth Social’ for now

The Republican ex-president recently announced that he is running for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election – and can therefore use a platform with a wide reach. So far, Trump has reiterated that he wants to stick with his own Twitter copy, Truth Social.

Trump has just over four million subscribers there. On Twitter, the “@realDonaldTrump” profile is followed by more than 87 million Twitter users. However, no tweets have been sent from the account since it was activated.

Musk bought Twitter for about $44 billion at the end of October. Since the takeover, the company has been struggling with the unwillingness of large advertising customers, among other things. Advertising revenue recently accounted for about 90 percent of sales. (sda/dpa)