Elon Musk, owner and boss of Twitter for three weeks, announced on Friday that several suspended user accounts had been reinstated on the platform, but that he had “not yet made a decision on (Donald) Trump”.
The boss of Tesla, who defends an absolutist vision of freedom of expression, is expected at the turn about former US President Donald Trump, banned from the social network after the assault on Capitol Hill in January 2021.
“The policy of the new Twitter is freedom of expression, but not the freedom to reach” the public, explained Elon Musk on his Twitter account. “Negative or hateful tweets will be demoted and demonetized, so there will be no back-to-back ads or other revenue for Twitter. You won’t find these tweets unless you look for them specifically, which is no different from the rest of the internet,” he added.
unprecedented crisis
Twitter seems plunged into an unprecedented crisis on Friday, after hundreds of employees of the group, survivors of the first massive wave of layoffs two weeks ago, decided to leave in response to an ultimatum from the multi-billionaire. Elon Musk is also facing concern and criticism from advertisers, analysts and elected officials after many contradictory decisions and positions on the crucial subject of content moderation.
The accounts he reinstated on Friday – Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson and Babylon Bee – are close to the American left or right. Comedian Kathy Griffin, who had two million subscribers, was suspended from the platform last week, like other internet users who had changed their username to “Elon Musk” to mock the new boss. She had also replaced her profile picture with an image of the billionaire.
The example of Baylon Bee
“Twitter accounts that impersonate someone else, without clearly specifying that it is a parody, will be permanently suspended,” Elon Musk said. Accused of defending freedom of expression except when he is the target of jokes, he also made fun of Kathy Griffin, tweeting: “Actually, she was suspended for pretending to be a comedian”.
“The Babylon Bee” is a conservative American satirical site, suspended from Twitter in March for violating hate speech rules, after a tweet about Rachel Levine, a transgender pediatrician in Joe Biden’s government. According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk’s ex-wife, Talulah Riley, texted him in the spring, before he announced his plan to acquire the social network, to protest the suspension of Babylon Bee and encourage it to buy Twitter to delete it or make it “radically pro freedom of expression”.
” I’m back. Thank you Elon Musk”
Jordan Peterson is a media personality known for his conservative views, and also suspended from the platform for hate speech, against transgender actor Elliot Page. ” I’m back. Thank you Elon Musk,” he tweeted on Friday.
A netizen suggested also reinstating far-right American conspirator Alex Jones, who has been sued for several years by parents of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newton, Connecticut, for claiming the massacre was not than a staging led by opponents of firearms. “No,” replied Elon Musk.