Musk Offers Update on Banned Twitter Accounts

Suspended tweeters won't be reviewed for reinstatement for 'at least a few more weeks'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 2, 2022 9:30 AM CDT
Musk Offers Update on Banned Twitter Accounts
Elon Musk is seen in Berlin on Dec. 1, 2020.   (Hannibal Hanschke/Pool Photo via AP, File)

With the midterms less than a week away, Twitter has a daunting task at hand: to keep misinformation on candidates, campaigns, and races to a minimum. Yoel Roth, the social media platform's head of safety and integrity, addressed the issue on Tuesday evening, noting that Twitter is "staying vigilant against attempts to manipulate conversations" around the election. As for whether Donald Trump or others with banned accounts will be able to join those conversations, owner Elon Musk offered an update early Wednesday.

"Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so," tweeted Musk, per NBC News. Musk, who now goes by the title "Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator" on his Twitter bio, added that the process won't be in place for "at least a few more weeks"—meaning Trump, who was suspended in January 2021, and others probably won't be back online imminently. Not that Musk hasn't given himself some wiggle room: In a Friday tweet, he noted that "anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail."

Musk also circled back Wednesday to his announced plans for a "content moderation council," tweeting that the panel will include "representatives with widely divergent views," and that those reps will "certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence." Per the Washington Post, Musk wrote that he's already been in discussions with executives from such groups as the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, and Asian American Foundation on "how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies." (More Elon Musk stories.)

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