Elon Musk could soon let banned users re-join Twitter after posting a poll to gauge opinion

New Twitter owner Elon Musk on Wednesday polled users on whether the platform should offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts. 

Musk has faced a pushback that his criteria for content moderation is subject to his personal whim, with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others.

The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX tweeted yesterday: ‘Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?’

The poll is open until 17:46 GMT on Thursday. All Twitter users can vote in polls on the platform. 

The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has faced a pushback that his criteria for content moderation is subject to his personal whim, with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others

Musk, who closed his buyout of Twitter in late October for $44 billion, did not make clear whether the bans to be covered by the poll were permanent suspensions or temporary ones. 

Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated on Saturday. 

Slightly more than 15 million users voted in the poll, with 51.8% in favor of the former president. 

Trump, who last week launched to regain the White House in 2024, tweeted: ‘The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated.’

His account began accumulating followers and had nearly 100,000 by 10pm ET Saturday. 

Some users initially reported being unable to follow the reinstated account on Saturday evening.

Trump’s Twitter account had over 88 million followers before he was banned on Jan. 8, 2021, ‘due to the risk of further incitement of violence’ after his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.  

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The poll is open until 17:46 GMT on Thursday. All Twitter users can vote in polls on the platform. Musk, who closed his buyout of Twitter in late October for $44 billion, did not make clear whether the bans to be covered by the poll were permanent suspensions or temporary ones

Musk’s reinstatement of Trump followed that of other banned accounts including a conservative parody site and a psychologist who had violated Twitter’s rules on language identifying transgender people.

Musk has said that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will not be returning to Twitter and will remain banned from the platform.

Musk on Sunday said he had ‘no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame’ due to his own experience with the death of his first child.

Jones has been ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 26 people, mostly children.

The future of content moderation on Twitter has become an urgent concern, with major advertisers keeping away from the site after a failed relaunch earlier this month saw a proliferation of fake accounts, causing embarrassment.

Meanwhile the teams in charge of keeping nefarious activity off the site have been gutted, victims of Musk-led layoffs that saw half of its 7,500 employees leave the company.

Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated on Saturday. Slightly more than 15 million users voted in the poll, with 51.8% in favor of the former president. Trump, who last week launched to regain the White House in 2024, tweeted: ‘The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated’

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Last week Musk tweeted: ‘New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach. 

‘Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. 

‘You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet.’ 

Musk said on Monday the social media company is holding off the relaunch of its blue check subscription service, a delay from his initial tentative timeline to bring back the service on the platform.

‘Holding off relaunch of Blue Verified until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation,’ Musk said in a tweet.

‘Will probably use different color check for organizations than individuals.’

The blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures.

But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this month to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers.

Twitter had paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service, as fake accounts mushroomed and had said Twitter’s sought-after blue check subscription service will be relaunched on Nov. 29.

Musk also tweeted that Twitter added 1.6 million users this past week, ‘another all-time high’.

Advertisers on Twitter, including big companies such as General Motors, Mondelez International, Volkswagen AG, have paused advertising on the platform, as they grapple with the new boss.

Hundreds of Twitter employees have also been estimated to have quit last week, following a Thursday deadline by Musk that staffers sign up for ‘long hours at high intensity,’ or leave.