Twitter plans to restore next week suspended accounts that haven't “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam”, after 72.4% of 3M+ voted yes in Musk's poll

The Twitter chief says he will reinstate accounts suspended for harassment, abuse and misinformation beginning next week.

Washington Post 2022-11-25 Taylor Lorenz

Context & Ripple Effects

Musk had already used a user poll to bring back Donald Trump’s account, establishing a public-vote mechanism for high-profile moderation reversals. The broader amnesty extends that approach from one account to a category of suspended users, using legal violations and egregious spam as the stated boundary.

Related coverage then records Twitter beginning to reinstate roughly 62,000 accounts with sizable followings, showing that the policy was not merely symbolic. Subsequent journalist-account reversals were also put to a poll, reinforcing the new decision-making pattern.

First-order effects

Suspended Twitter accounts that fall outside the stated legal and spam exclusions become eligible for reinstatement beginning the following week, including accounts previously removed for harassment, abuse, or misinformation.
Twitter replaces prior enforcement outcomes for that group with a narrower threshold set through Musk’s poll-driven amnesty.

Second-order effects

High-following accounts are among the early beneficiaries of the amnesty, changing the immediate mix of influential voices on Twitter as reinstatements begin at scale.
Future suspension disputes, including those involving journalists, gain a precedent for resolution through Musk-run polls rather than a stable enforcement process.

Third-order effects

If repeated, poll-based reversals shift Twitter moderation from rule application toward ad hoc owner-led mandates, making account access contingent on platform-wide votes.
The pattern points to a free-speech-maximalist moderation model in which the platform’s practical eligibility standard narrows toward illegality and severe spam rather than the broader harms cited in earlier suspensions.

The trend: Twitter is moving from conventional account-enforcement decisions toward publicly polled, Musk-directed reinstatement campaigns with a much narrower bar for exclusion.

Discussion

@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
Elon Musk plans to reinstate nearly all previously banned Twitter accounts — to the alarm of activists and online trust and safety experts. The decision will have dangerous consequences, particularly for vulnerable communities https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@strngwys Roberto Baldwin on x
Remember that horrible stalker or ex or bigoted asshole that wouldn't leave you alone and threatened you with violence? Musk is being them all back to twitter. https://twitter.com/...
@ssurovell Senator Scott Surovell on x
Remember when the Taliban said they wouldn't keep girls out of schools & protect human rights when they came back? So much for not allowing Twitter to be a “free-for-all-hellscape” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@bullymaus @bullymaus on x
“Death is in the air” -CNN “Gates of Hell” -Washington Post “Get a grip, you overemotional, hysterical nutters!” -Normal People https://twitter.com/...
@davidcorndc David Corn on x
This is not responsible corporate ownership. Musk hides behind Twitter polls to allow a privately-owned platform to be used by Nazis and other hate and possibly violent groups. I'm sure advertisers will love this. Imagine Tesla deciding on safety features via riggable polls. http…
@tomcoates Tom Coates on x
He's unsuspending every account that was removed for hate speech, abuse, harassment, election denial, stuff that could yet you killed. https://twitter.com/...
@charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x
Yes. So please IGNORE HIM for the love of all that's sensible. When things *happen*, pay attention. But otherwise, as with that orange idiot: tweets are not actions, and do not deserve your rapt attention. https://twitter.com/...
@chipgoines Chip Goines on x
Twitter's headed back to its supertoxic 2014-2017 era that gave us gamergate, the alt-right, & charlottesville. @wfamarketers should advise all of its members to cease ad buys on this site asap. @patagonia what kind of world are you building by buying ads on this racist hellsite?…
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
Looks like he's going through with it. Horrifying that many ppl's most violent and aggressive stalkers and those who spew anti LGBTQ hate, misogyny, and disnfo are being welcomed back with open arms https://twitter.com/...
@auronmacintyre Auron MacIntyre on x
Always replace *trust and safety experts* with party commissars https://twitter.com/...
@attorneynora Nora Benavidez on x
Using Twitter polls to decide major content decisions is horrifying CEO behavior. Polls are not based on the public. Polls include bots, algorithmic reach, account influence. https://twitter.com/...
@joshorton Josh Orton on x
It's like the scene in Ghostbusters where the EPA guy is like ‘shut off the containment grid’ and Egon's like 'no don't that it would be a terrible because all the ghosts would escape' and then they shut it off anyway and it's a disaster because all the ghosts escape https://twit…
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
This is potentially platform vandalism on a grand scale. https://twitter.com/...
@mmasnick Mike Masnick on x
So... the day that Elon insisted hew as going to grant “amnesty” (what the fuck does that even mean?) to most banned accounts... Twitter bans Chad Loder for the second time in two days... as I type this his account is suspended again (it was back for a while yesterday). https://t…
@alistaircoleman Alistair Coleman on x
Watch out, The New Owner could be about to make things even worse. https://twitter.com/...
@manan @manan on x
more like Vox Bot-uli, Volc Elon https://twitter.com/...
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
Hard to explain what serious consequences this could have https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@tomortenberg Tom Ortenberg on x
On + side, Musk well on his way to turning twitter into a poor man's truth social. https://twitter.com/...
@leonidragozin @leonidragozin on x
Reviving banned accounts will change literally nothing in the sector of Twitter focusing on Eastern Europe. Twitter has never countered hate speech here while its algorithm and complaints policy appear to be encouraging and mainstreaming it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
Musk's reinstatement of suspended accounts could mean bringing back networks of individuals that include the American Nazi Party and “a whole bunch of 8chan, 4chan, conspiracy theorists who engage in harassment and abuse.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
Just the insanity of taking a Twitter poll as validation... Musk isn't a moron. He knew his poll would go this way. This is deliberate. Imagine the mayor fills your town square with actual shit. This is exactly that. For zero good reason unless you have billionaire brainworms.
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
Yeah, there's absolutely nothing “democratic” about an easily manipulated Twitter poll. “Musk, under the auspices of democracy, is legitimizing decisions that will have deeply dangerous consequences in the real world,” said @AttorneyNora https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https:…
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
I can remember every time @flashboy and I would uncover bot networks and give their handles to Twitter for comment, Twitter would issue a statement refusing to comment on individual accounts and then ban them all. So......... 😬 https://twitter.com/...
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
“Conducting major moderation and enforcement decisions on a whim is troubling CEO behavior,” said Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@taylorlorenz @taylorlorenz on x
Reversing the suspensions would mean “turning Twitter into a one-stop shop for operationalizing doxxing and harassment, and an engine of radicalization,” @GoAngelo said. “It's a red pill Pez dispenser.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@brianvan @brianvan on x
I don't hear any protesting from @jack either. This place didn't exactly have low standards for nuking harassers, violence mongers and doxxers before Musk, and now the ones that did cross the line are just being allowed back to abuse again https://twitter.com/...
@timcast Tim Pool on x
Lol Alex Jones didn't break the law or spam https://twitter.com/...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@Cryptoking @RBReich Sorry for the delay, we're tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week. Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates. Painfu…
@joshtpm Josh Marshall on x
The entirety of Musk's feed now is him interacting with right wing trolls, often antisemitic and racist accounts, validating each conspiracy theory they toss out about how all the algos were never “used on liberals” https://twitter.com/...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@Cryptoking @RBReich All verified individual humans will have same blue check, as boundary of what constitutes “notable” is otherwise too subjective. Individuals can have secondary tiny logo showing they belong to an org if verified as such by that org. Longer explanation next we…
@scalzi John Scalzi on x
With what staff? (Reminder I have no problem with verifying anyone who wants to confirm their account is actually them; it's about security not status. I'm just not sure how it gets done on a skeleton crew.) https://www.theverge.com/...
@kittygiraudel Kitty Giraudel on x
Color blindness says hi. https://twitter.com/...
@charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x
Sense finally gives into view. No word on Twitter Blue? https://twitter.com/...
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
As it stands, I still have a completely arbitrary set of accounts I follow with “official”, too... https://twitter.com/...
@alexhern @alexhern on x
in a reply to a tweet from twitter user “crypto king” musk has created another new type of verification: double verification https://twitter.com/...
@db @db on x
So we go from one blue check, to two blue checks, to madness, to two blue checks & an additional “Official” grey check, and NOW we will have... *checks notes* 5 different check marks? Maybe?? Kay https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Twitter is going to add a gold checkmark for companies, a grey one for government accounts, and blue checkmark stays for individuals. This addresses the impersonation risk by reviving Twitter's manual verification for brands. Paid users & notable people won't be differentiated. h…

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