Elon Musk has announced a “general amnesty” for previously suspended Twitter accounts after he posted a poll on the platform in which just over three million, of the more than 300 million monthly active users voted.
“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” tweeted the South African businessman.
The people have spoken.
Amnesty begins next week.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022
Musk’s approach to free speech has irked advertisers recently, with many companies choosing to pull their ad spend over fears around brand safety. These concerns were heightened after he reinstated the accounts of Kanye West, Donald Trump, and Andrew Tate.
This new directive from Musk will do little to quell the fears of advertisers, especially after Musk replied to a user saying “The more I learn, the worse it gets. The world should know the truth of what has been happening at Twitter.
“Transparency will earn the trust of the people.”
Musk has also come under fire for repeatedly interacting with far-right accounts. Musk regularly chats with Andy Ngo, for example, who the Columbia Journalism Review described as a “discredited provocateur.”
He has also chatted with, and made a very poor content moderation suggestion to, Paul Ray Ramsey. The Southern Poverty Law Centre describes Ramsey as a white nationalist.
Removing child exploitation is priority #1. Please reply in comments if you see anything that Twitter needs to address.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022
However, Musk claimed that hate speech impressions had dropped by one-third compared to the “pre-spike levels” — i.e. when Musk took control of Twitter. The slightly unclear graph Musk tweeted still shows that millions of hate-filled tweets are being sent every day.
Hate speech impressions down by 1/3 from pre-spike levels. Congrats to Twitter team! pic.twitter.com/5BWaQoIlip
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022
If Musk had managed to achieve that reduction in the number of hate tweets being sent since his takeover, it is all the more remarkable considering he is continually firing workers.
Hearing that roughly 50 Twitter engineers were abruptly fired last night and dozens more received warnings: https://t.co/1G3CoI2CcI
— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 24, 2022
