Twitter chief Elon Musk on Wednesday once again proposed a poll on the microblogging site asking users whether the platform should offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts. The poll is in line with the strategy used last week ago for reinstating former US president Donald Trump.
Taking to Twitter, Musk wrote, “Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?”
Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022
The polls survey will be out on November 25, 2022, around 11:30 PM IST.
Musk initiated a new poll asking users whether the platform should offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts amid criticism that his criteria for content moderation are subject to personal whim with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others.
Last week, former United States President Donald Trump’s Twitter account “reappeared” on the microblogging site after Musk conducted a poll wherein votes in favour of revoking the ban won by a margin of 4 per cent.
Musk announced lifting 22-month suspension of the account over incitement of violence at the US Capitol Hill on January 6 last year.
“Reinstate former President Trump,” the billionaire Twitter owner posted, with a chance to vote either yes or no. “Trump poll getting ~1M votes/hour,” he said in a subsequent tweet.
Slightly over 15 million Twitter users voted in the poll with 51.8 per cent voting in favor of reinstatement, reported news agency AFP.
“I don’t see any reason for it,” the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.
Last week, Musk started to reinstate accounts that were previously subject to indefinite bans for breaking the platform’s rules. Author Jordan Peterson and comedian Kathy Griffin are among the first ones whose accounts were back .
“New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach. Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted and 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 has tweeted earlier.
Twitter polls can be taken by all users and are unscientific and potentially targeted by fake accounts and bots, states AFP report.
The poll process could also spook Apple and Google and other tech majors that have the power to ban Twitter from their mobile app stores over content concerns.
The future of content moderation on the social media platform remains a concern with major advertisers keeping away from the site after a failed relaunch this month that witnessed emergence of fake accounts leading to embarrassment.