Poll organised by new owner backed reopening accounts,
leading to fears ‘superspreaders of hate’ will return to social media platform
Online safety experts predict Elon Musk’s amnesty will
spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation.
Dan Milmo
Global technology editor
Thu 24 Nov
2022 22.46 GMT
Elon Musk
has announced a general amnesty for suspended Twitter accounts in a move that
brought a warning that “superspreaders of hate” will return to the social media
platform.
Twitter’s
new owner said an amnesty for blocked users would begin next week after a
majority of votes in a poll on his account backed the move. Accounts suspended
on Twitter include Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon, rightwing UK
commentator Katie Hopkins and David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard.
Musk had
launched a poll on Wednesday asking if a general amnesty should be offered to
accounts provided they have not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam”.
Musk did not specify which laws he meant. More than 3.1m votes were recorded by
the poll, with 72% in favour of an amnesty.
Announcing
the result, Musk tweeted: “The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week.”
He added “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people
[is] the voice of God.”
Musk’s
announcement came days after he reinstated Trump’s account as well as the
accounts for Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, former professional
kickboxer Andrew Tate – whose extreme misogynistic views led to a Twitter ban
in 2017 – and the unlocking of the account for US rapper Ye, formerly Kanye
West, who was sanctioned last month for posting antisemitic comments.
The Center
for Countering Digital Hate, a campaign group, said “superspreaders” of hateful
content would benefit from the move and urged advertisers, many of whom have
already paused spending on the platform, to stop funding Twitter.
“Superspreaders
of hate, abuse and harassment will be the only people to benefit from this
latest decision by Twitter,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of CCDH. “The
choice for advertisers has never been starker: stick around and back Elon Musk,
or protect their brands and ensure their marketing dollars aren’t used to
enable the spread of hate, abuse and disinformation.”
Angelo
Carusone, president of US campaign group Media Matters, which monitors
“conservative misinformation”, said reversing the suspensions would turn
Twitter into an “engine of radicalization”.
This week
Musk ruled out the return of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has promoted
the false claim that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax, saying he had
“no mercy” for people who capitalise on the deaths of children for personal
fame. Other banned Twitter accounts include the rightwing writer Milo
Yiannopoulos and former BBC presenter David Icke.
Musk had
previously said there would be no account reinstatements until a newly
announced content moderation council had met. However, the Tesla CEO then said
human rights groups “broke the deal” by urging advertisers to halt spending on
the platform.
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