Musk says granting ‘amnesty’ to suspended Twitter accounts

New Twitter owner Elon Musk said on Thursday that he would “amnesty” suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will fuel a rise in harassment, hate speech, and harassment. hostility and misinformation.

The billionaire’s announcement came after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline to vote for reinstatement for accounts that don’t “break the law or engage in serious spam.” The number of votes in favor was 72%.

“Everyone has spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted with a Latin phrase that means “voice of the people, voice of God.”

Musk used the same Latin phrase after making a similar post poll last weekend before recovering former President Donald Trump’s account, which Twitter banned for encouraging the January 6, 2021, uprising on Capitol Hill. Trump has said he will not return to Twitter but has not deleted his account.

Such online polls are not scientific and can easily be influenced by bots.

In the month since Musk took over Twitter, groups that monitor the platform for racist, anti-Semitic, and other malicious speech say it’s on the rise in the world’s de facto public square. gender. That included a increase in racist abuse of World Cup soccer players that Twitter allegedly failed to act.

The increase in harmful content mostly due to disorder following Musk’s decision to lay off half of the company’s 7,500-strong workforce, fire top executives, and then issue a series of ultimatums that put hundreds of others out of work. There are also countless contractors responsible for content moderation. Among those who resigned because of a lack of faith in Musk’s willingness to keep Twitter from turning into an out-of-control slur is Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth.

The major advertisers also give up the foundation.

On October 28, a day after taking control, Musk tweeted that no suspended accounts would be reinstated until Twitter formed a “content moderation board” with views Diversity will consider the case.

On Tuesday, he said he had reneged on that promise because he had agreed to the insistence of “a large coalition of socio-political activist groups” who then “” break the deal” by urging advertisers to at least temporarily stop providing Twitter with business.

A day earlier, Twitter restored privacy account by far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was banned in January for violating the platform’s COVID disinformation policy.

Meanwhile, Musk has become increasingly close on Twitter with right-wing figures. Ahead of the US midterm elections this month, he urged “independents” to vote Republican.

One report from the European Union published on Thursday says Twitter takes longer to review hate content and removes it less this year than it does in 2021. The report is based on data collected in the spring — prior to Musk’s acquisition. Twitter — as part of an annual review of online platforms’ compliance with the block’s rule on misinformation. It found that Twitter rated just over half of the notifications it received for illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82% in 2021.

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