After Elon Musk took over Twitter, a lot changed. And that includes mass layoffs, employees leaving Twitter, and the introduction and then retraction of paid blue ticks, among other things. One thing that Elon Musk promised before taking over the company was “freedom of speech” on the platform. Keeping his promises, he is now reinstating previously banned accounts. Which are these accounts, you ask? Let me give you a list.
1. Donald Trump
The former US President, Donald Trump, was suspended from Twitter in January 2021 after the insurrection at the Capitol, fearing the “risk of further incitement of violence.” After debating whether Trump should be reinstated, Musk left it to the users by making a poll.
More than 51% of people were in favour and hence Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated. Elon Musk shared the news through a tweet which mentioned, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” – a Latin phrase meaning the voice of the people is the voice of God.
2. Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson is a Canadian psychologist whose account was suspended in 2018 after violating Twitter’s “hateful conduct guidelines”. This was after he made an offensive tweet in which he referred to Elliot Page with their dead name, saying, “Remember when pride was a sin? And Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician”
3. Kathy Griffin
Earlier this month, many people on Twitter were protesting Elon Musk’s decision to roll out the paid blue tick model by changing their names without clearly specifying themselves as parody. One such account was of US comedian Kathy Griffin who had changed her name to Elon Musk. But now Kathy Griffin’s account has been reinstated by the Twitter chief.
4. The Babylon Bee
The Babylon Bee is a conservative parody account on Twitter. In March, the account was banned for misgendering Rachel Levine, a trans woman currently serving as US assistant secretary of health. The account was reinstated on Friday, after which The Babylon Bee tweeted, “We’re back. Let that sink in.”
5. Kanye West
Last month, Kanye West or Ye’s Twitter account was suspended after he made posts deemed by social media users as antisemitic. Those tweets were removed before the suspension. His account was reinstated after Musk came in. After reinstatement, Ye tweeted, “Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked” to which Musk responded, “Don’t kill what ye hate Save what ye love”.
6. Andrew Tate
Andrew Tate, the controversial influencer, was suspended from the microblogging platform in 2017 for violating Twitter’s terms of service. One of his tweets said, women should “bare some responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, which led to the suspension of his account.
After five years, his account was finally reinstated – thanks to Elon Musk. Upon his reinstatement, Tate tweeted, “Mastery is a funny thing. It’s almost as if, on a long enough time scale, losing simply isn’t an option. Such is the way of Wudan.”
Among all these reinstatements, I wonder if Kangana Ranaut’s account will be reinstated too. 👀
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