New changes are expected to come to Twitter as Elon Musk gets to work. But there is a return of the old. And we don’t mean just the reboot of Vine, the OG short-form video app.
Musk, who is a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, is likely to put an end to permanent bans on Twitter. And there are already signs of the “outcasts” making a comeback.
Also read: Head on Twitter under Elon Musk must banish bias to make it more democratic
Kanye West, aka Ye
For starters, rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, is on Twitter again. His account was locked last month after posting anti-Semitic messages and his tweets were removed for violating policies on hate speech.
However, Ye’s account was available for public viewing on Friday, sparking rumours that Musk had reinstated it. However, the “Chief Twit” maintains he had no role to play. He said Twitter had restored the account of the rapper before the completion of the social media platform’s takeover late on Thursday. “They did not consult with or inform me,” Musk said in a tweet.
Interestingly, on 8 October, Musk tweeted “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!” when Ye posted on the platform for the first time in two years after his Instagram account was restricted for anti-Semitic posts. Twitter later locked his account and removed one of his posts.
Donald Trump
The biggest name to be banned from Twitter so far is undoubtedly former United States president Donald Trump. His account was taken down in early 2021 after the 6 January Capitol attack.
Twitter had reviewed Trump’s posts and concluded that there was a “risk of further incitement of violence” if he continued to tweet from his account. “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them…we have permanently suspended the account,” Twitter wrote in a blog at the time.
Now the possible return of the former US president after Musk’s takeover is the talk of the town. In his trademark sarcastic manner, the Twitter boss wrote, “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!”
Will he, won’t he? We still don’t know.
Trump had said in April that he won’t return to Twitter after Musk’s purchase and would be on his own social network TRUTH Social.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump had told Fox News just before Musk’s deal was formally announced. “… he’ll [Musk] make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.”Kangana Ranaut
She is no Donald Trump, but she has hit headlines more often for her tweets than her films. The Bollywood actor’s account was permanently suspended in May 2021 after “repeated violation of Twitter rules”.
Kangana Ranaut was suspended from Twitter in May 2021. PTI
Now fans are hopeful she will make a return. An unverified account (probably started by a fan), which has already garnered 12.1k followers, tweeted on 1 November, “Thanks Elon Musk, I’m Back now!!”
Kangana Ranaut has said recently that if she is back on Twitter “people’s lives will become sensational”.
“I was there on Twitter for one year and Twitter couldn’t tolerate me for even a year… I have completed one year on Instagram in May and I have already received three warnings,” she said at a pre-election event hosted by the news channel Aaj Tak in Himachal Pradesh.Steve Bannon
In late 2020, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist in the White House, was banned from Twitter as the social media platform was cracking down on those inciting violence.
Former Trump White House senior advisor Steve Bannon’s Twitter account was blocked in 2020. AFP
The decision was taken after Bannon put out a post suggesting that Dr Anthony Fauci, who spearheaded America’s COVID-19 response, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Christopher Wray be beheaded. The former Trump advisor put up a video in which he said, “I’d put the heads on pikes. Right. I’d put them at the two corners of the White House. As a warning to federal bureaucrats.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene
After misleading claims on COVID-19 vaccines, US Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account was permanently suspended in January. The action from Twitter came after she tweeted about “extremely high amounts” of deaths related to the vaccines.
Twitter had introduced an AI system which identified posts spreading coronavirus-related misinformation. “Content that is demonstrably false or misleading and may lead to significant risk of harm (such as increased exposure to the virus, or adverse effects on public health systems) may not be shared on Twitter,” according to the platform’s COVID-19 misleading information policy.
Greene is also known for propagating far-right views and conspiracy theories. She claimed that the 2020 US election was won by Trump.
However, the politician continues to tweet from her official account. Greene reportedly led supporters of Trump on a victory lap after Musk pledged to slash moderation.
“Freedom of speech,” she tweeted from her official account.
Alex Jones
American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been banned from Twitter in 2018 for violating its abusive behaviour. Now there is growing concern that his account might be reinstated.
InfoWars founder Alex Jones was sued by several victims’ families for causing emotional and psychological harm after they lost their children in the Sandy Hook massacre. AFP
Founder of the conspiracist website InfoWars, Jones was ordered to pay $965m in damages claiming that the Sandy Hook school shooting in the US was a hoax.
Katie Hopkins
In June 2020, British far-right political commentator Katie Hopkins was banned from Twitter. According to the social media giant, she had broken its hateful conduct policy. Back then, she had more than one million followers.
Hopkins has an active YouTube channel with more than 24,000 subscribers.
Babylon Bee
The account of The Babylon Bee, the conservative satirical site, was suspended in March after it published an article which Twitter deemed as transphobic.
In April, Seth Dillon, the website’s chief executive officer, wrote on Twitter, “Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter’s commitment to free speech. He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter. Now he’s the largest shareholder and has a seat on the board.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert, another prominent Trump supporter in Congress, tweeted, “Congratulations, @elonmusk! Now please bring back America’s most trusted news source.”
According to a Bloomberg report, Musk is expected to stick to his promise of reversing several bans on Twitter because he does not believe in lifelong prohibitions.
With inputs from agencies
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