New Twitter owner, Elon Musk, has gone about reinstated some Twitter accounts that had been subject to lifetime ban in keeping with his promise of lenient moderation on the app.
Elon Musk, who completed the purchase of Twitter late last month, had previously stated that he was against the total removal of people from the site. Instead, he would opt for a timeout if any accounts crossed the line on the platform.
Among the main accounts that were reinstated included accounts of former President Donald Trump, rapper Kanye West, controversial influencer, Andrew Tate, who had been banned from the app since 2017 and Jordan Peterson, a psychologist turned public speaker. The accounts had been banned from Twitter by the previous administration for various violations of its policies.
Kanye West, Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson all celebrated their return to Twitter with tweets.
“Testing, Testing. Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked,” Kanye, known as Ye on Twitter, tweeted.
“I’m back. Thanks Elon Musk,” Jordan Peterson tweeted, along with a picture of ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene from the movie, The Shining.
Other accounts also reinstated are Kathy Griffins, suspended for impersonating Elon Musk and The Babylon Bee, which had been suspended for mis-gendering a trans woman.
Trump Declines
However, for U.S President, Donald Trump, who is set to run for presidency again in the next U.S Presidential elections, declined a return to the platform.
Speaking to a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition annual leadership meeting on Sunday, Trump stated that he did not see any reason for returning to Twitter, also stating that the app had a problem with bots and fake accounts. Instead, he would stick with his own personal app, Truth Social, where he boasts of high engagements.
Trump had boasted of over 88 million followers on Twitter before his permanent ban in January 2021 and his new account has since began accumulating followers.
