San Francisco, US: The Owner of Twitter, Mr. Elon Musk, has declared that a General Amnesty for blocked users would begin next week if a majority of votes in a Poll on his account supported the move.
The blocked accounts include Mr. Donald Trump’s former adviser Mr. Steve Bannon, rightwing UK broadcaster Mr. Katie Hopkins and Mr. David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard.
The CEO of Twitter had started a Poll on 23rd November asking if a General Amnesty should be granted to users as long as they have not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.”
The Poll received more than 3.1 million responses, with 72 percent of respondents supporting Amnesty.
“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week,” Mr. Musk tweeted after announcing the results. The Latin phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which means “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” was also mentioned in the tweet.
Mr. Musk’s announcement came just days after he unblocked the account of US rapper Mr. Ye, formerly Kanye West, who was penalized last month for making antisemitic remarks.
The accounts of Canadian psychologist Mr. Jordan Peterson, and former Canadian kickboxing champion Mr. Andrew Tate were also restored. Mr. Tate had his account suspended in 2017 due to his extreme misogynistic views.
Mr. Musk did not give details on how the amnesty process would be carried out. Twitter would become a “engine of radicalization” if the bans were lifted, according to Mr. Angelo Carusone, Head of the US Advocacy Organization Media Matters, which tracks “conservative propaganda.”