New Twitter owner Elon Musk is to grant an “amnesty” for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will lead to a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation.
The billionaire’s announcement on Thursday came after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline for users to vote on reinstatements for accounts that have not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam".
The yes vote was 72 per cent.
“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox populi, vox dei,” Mr Musk tweeted using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God".
Mr Musk used the same Latin phrase after posting a similar poll last last weekend before reinstating the account of former US president Donald Trump.
Twitter had banned Mr Trump for encouraging the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Mr Trump has said he will not return to Twitter but has not deleted his account.
Such online polls are anything but scientific and can easily be influenced by bots.
In the month since Mr Musk took over Twitter, groups that monitor the platform for racist, anti-Semitic and other toxic speech say they have been on the rise on the world’s public square.
That has included a surge in racist abuse of World Cup football players, which Twitter is accused of failing to act on.
The sudden rise in harmful content is in large part due to the disorder after Mr Musk’s decision to lay off half of the company’s workforce of 7,500, fire top executives and institute ultimatums that prompted hundreds more to quit.
Also let go were an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation.
Among those resigning over a lack of faith in Mr Musk's plans for the platform were Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth.
Celebrities who've quit Twitter following Elon Musk takeover - in pictures
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Gigi Hadid has deactivated her Twitter account following Elon Musk's takeover of the platform, saying 'it's becoming more and more of a cesspool of hate and bigotry with the new leadership'. AFP -
Whoopi Goldberg said she was getting off Twitter because 'it’s so messy'. AP -
Producer Shonda Rhimes quit the platform days after Elon Musk took over. Reuters -
Actor and filmmaker Alex Winter's account has also been deactivated. AFP -
Grammy-winning singer Sara Bareilles said Twitter was no longer for her. AP -
Actor Amber Heard, who once dated Elon Musk, has also deactivated her account. AP -
Singer Toni Braxton, who has also quit, said she was not comfortable with 'hate speech under the veil of free speech'. Alamy Stock Photo -
Comedian Kathy Griffin's Twitter account was suspended after she changed her name to 'Elon Musk'. GC Images -
'Avengers' star Mark Ruffalo has pleaded with Elon Musk to 'get off Twitter and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX'. AP
Major advertisers have also abandoned the platform.
On October 28, the day after he took control, Mr Musk tweeted that no suspended accounts would be reinstated until Twitter formed a “content moderation council” with diverse viewpoints that would consider the cases.
On Tuesday, he said he was reneging on that promise because he had agreed to it at the insistence of “a large coalition of political-social activists groups” who later ”broke the deal” by urging that advertisers at least temporarily stop giving Twitter their business.
A day earlier, Twitter reinstated the personal account of far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, which was closed in January for breaching the platform’s Covid misinformation policies.
Mr Musk has been getting increasingly friendly on Twitter with right-wing figures. Before this month’s US midterm elections he urged “independent-minded” people to vote Republican.
10 most-followed celebrities on Twitter - in pictures
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Former US president Barack Obama has the most-followed account on Twitter and is a prolific tweeter. AFP -
Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber has the second most-followed account but has only posted once in 2022. He's prolific on Instagram, however. AFP -
US singer-songwriter Katy Perry comes in third and is active on Twitter, but not particularly prolific. AFP -
Rihanna has the fourth most-followed account, but has posted less than 10 times per month in 2022 so far. Getty Images via AFP -
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has the fifth most-followed account, keeps us updated several times a month, but is far more active on Instagram. AFP -
Taylor Swift, who has had a love-hate relationship with social media, has the sixth most-followed Twitter account and yet rarely uses the platform. Getty Images via AFP -
Lady Gaga has the seventh most-followed Twitter account and is fairly active, but uses Instagram a bit more. Getty Images via AFP -
Elon Musk, who has the eighth most-followed Twitter account, is the biggest individual shareholder in the parent company and its newest board member, and is among the most prolific users. AFP -
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses Twitter regularly, with several posts per day, and has the ninth most-followed account. AFP -
US comedienne Ellen DeGeneres keeps her 77.5 million followers updated several times per day. AFP
A report from the EU published on Thursday said Twitter took longer to review hateful content and removed less of it this year compared with 2021.
The report was based on data collected over the spring, before Mr Musk acquired Twitter, as part of an annual evaluation of online platforms’ compliance with the bloc’s code of conduct on disinformation.
It found that Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82 per cent in 2021.
