Only days after a banning spree in which Twitter CEO Elon Musk suspended the accounts of a number of journalists who he accused of doxxing him, he's made the decision to reinstate them after conducting a Twitter poll.
Among the accounts briefly banned were CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, New York Times reporter Ryan Mac, Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell, Mashable reporter Matt Binder, and independent progressive commentator Aaron Rupar, all of whom are back in action as of the time of this post.
3.7 million Twitter users participated in Musk's poll on whether or not to reinstate the journalists, with the end results coming out at 58.7% to 41.3% in favor of doing so.
"The people have spoken," Musk tweeted, forgoing the use of Latin this time around.
The people have spoken.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2022
Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now. https://t.co/MFdXbEQFCe
"I want to thank everyone for all the support and kind words over the past day and some change," Aaron Rupar tweeted after his account was flipped back on. "I was pretty bummed about getting suspended initially but quickly realized it'd be fine because I'm blessed to have an amazing online community. Seriously, I appreciate it a lot. Cheers."
"Matt Binder is back," the Mashable reporter tweeted, riffing off Musk's "Space is back" tweet from Friday.
Matt Binder is back https://t.co/cTZtuShaFm
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) December 17, 2022
Prior to reinstating the suspended accounts, Musk tweeted out a jab at the outrage the suspensions caused, particularly within the journalism community, saying "So inspiring to see the newfound love of freedom of speech by the press."
So inspiring to see the newfound love of freedom of speech by the press 🥰
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
As Musk cycles through rapid fire changes to Twitter usage and functionality, he announced on Saturday that "Twitter will start incorporating mute & block signals from Blue Verified (not Legacy Blue) as downvotes."
"Very cool idea. Creates an incentive for civility and good-faith effort even while criticizing," Lex Fridman, podcast host and research scientist tweeted in response.
