Elon Musk has brought Trump back to Twitter
(Picture: ES Composite)Elon Musk’s era of ending celebrity permabans is underway. The previous promise of a content-moderation council apparently abandoned, Musk unbanned Donald Trump based, it seems, on the results of a dubious Twitter poll. So it looks as if Musk has decided to go all in on his vision for a free-speech haven, whether advertisers like it or not (spoiler: they do not).
The self-style Chief Twit has now said that he is granting “amnesty” for suspended Twitter accounts as soon as next week after yet another poll on his Twitter account.
Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022
Things are moving fast at Twitter. When we first published this post, the names below were all still banned. Now a third of them are back, so we’ve restructured it to keep a running track. Here’s who’s back and who may be following in the days and weeks ahead.
Already unbanned
Donald Trump
Who?
Reality TV star, WWE Hall of Famer and, yes, former president of the United States.
Why was he banned?
While in the White House, Trump continually pushed the limits of what was allowed on the platform, forcing Twitter first to write a policy allowing world leaders to violate rules in the name of public interest, and then to actively apply labels that his tweets were misleading.
This bending of the rules would eventually snap on January 6, 2021, when the outgoing president’s tweets were blamed for inciting the attempted insurrection at the Capital. Trump has been banned ever since.
Will he actually use it?
Twitter will hope so. The former president’s tweets bring an enormous amount of engagement to the site, which might explain the reluctance to kick him off in the first place.
But, for now, despite encouraging his fans to vote for his return, Trump has repeatedly said he won’t go back, and claims to like his own Truth Social website better. But, as anybody who has been paying any attention at all knows, Trump says a lot of things he ends up contradicting, and he sure loves attention, which Truth Social doesn’t really offer. With that in mind, we’d say it’s a matter of when not if.
Kanye West
Who?
Rapper, one-time presidential candidate and former Kardashian-in-law.
Why was he banned?
Actually, it’s been claimed that he wasn’t banned by Musk. But he went notably quiet after being restricted for making antisemitic tweets back in October.
Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked
— ye (@kanyewest) November 20, 2022
Will he actually use it?
Whether he was once banned or not, he definitely isn’t now. “Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked,” he tweeted on Sunday, November 20, 16 days after his last previous message. “Shalom : )” he added, five hours later.
This was actually something of a surprise, given West had gone out and bought his own social network in the weeks since his no-ban. He’s soon to be the proud owner of Parler, so we expect that to be the exclusive home of Kanye, in the short term at least.
Still (currently) out in the cold
Alex Jones
Who?
Conspiracy theorist, radio host, and supplement salesman.
Why was he banned?
Probably peer pressure as a result of YouTube, Apple, Facebook and Spotify all banning Jones the month before Twitter belatedly took action in September 2018.
No specific trigger-point was cited, but it notably followed a confrontation between Jones and Senator Marco Rubio going viral on the platform.
'Don't touch me again, man': Sen. Marco Rubio faces off against InfoWars conspiracy monger Alex Jones in hallway heckle spat https://t.co/d7o4wlvD3w pic.twitter.com/Z9Rj3ufv0O
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 5, 2018
Without mentioning it directly, Twitter cited “new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behaviour policy”. Quite alarming that Twitter only hears of what happens on its own platform via the news, but there we are.
Chances of a comeback
If it was up to Jones, a solid 10/10. The reach of Twitter would give him a fighting chance of recouping some of the $965 million he owes families of the victims of Sandy Hook. And given Jones is based in America, where freedom of speech is guaranteed under the First Amendment, by his own rules Musk would have to allow Jones back on the platform.
However, Musk has seemingly ruled it out for now. After posting a tweet asking what Twitter should do next, somebody suggested unbanning Jones. “No,” Musk replied. When Kim Dotcom made the case again, Musk made it clear that his mind won’t be changed. “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame,” he responded.
My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2022
I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.
Chances of a comeback: 1/10
Katie Hopkins
Who?
Apprentice dropout turned look-at-me controversialist.
Why was she banned?
Twitter never actually said – it merely highlighted that Hopkins was banned under the catch-all anti-abuse and hateful conduct policy.
A drip-feed of near-the-knuckle offences seems the most likely reason, having previously got away with calling for a “final solution” after the Manchester bombing three years earlier.
Her final tweet was pretty innocuous by comparison, but gives you an idea of the kind of side-splitting content that could return if her ban is revoked: “Today is #whiteoutwednesday. I will shortly be posting a picture of my arse. Thank you.”
Chances of a comeback
If there’s one thing the assorted oddballs and misfits who volunteer for the Apprentice really appreciate, it’s attention, and Hopkins has been somewhat deprived of that since losing her Twitter account. She’s probably force-refreshing the page already.
9/10
David Icke
Who?
Former Hereford United goalkeeper and sport broadcaster, now a wannabe son of God, and conspiracy theorist.
Why was he banned?
After years of warning the public about the shapeshifting lizard people controlling society, it was the coronavirus pandemic that finally did for Icke on Twitter.
“We will continue to remove demonstrably false or potentially misleading content that has the highest risk of causing harm,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Chances of a comeback
In principle, this looks a no-brainer (no pun intended). And yet, would a lizard-fearing conspiracy theorist really want to join a social network where the terms and conditions are at the whim of the world’s richest man? Isn’t that exactly what the lizards want?
7/10
Azealia Banks
Who?
Rapper and NFT sex-tape saleswoman.
Why was she banned?
Azealia was famous for trolling other celebrities on Twitter and in the real world (“I could run Tesla better than he does”, she said of new owner Elon Musk in 2018.
Attention-grabbing beefs may make the site unpleasant, but it’s not a bannable offence. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a racist tirade at former One Direction star Zayn Malik, whom she accused of copying her music video.
Chances of a comeback
It is nigh-on certain Banks will want to return, given she’s already tried to come back three times since getting the boot, including once since the Musk acquisition first made the news.
In April, Banks rejoined under the handle @Azealiaishere, amassing 21,000 followers in the hours before she was kicked off again. The popcorn is clearly at the ready.
10/10
Tommy Robinson
Who?
Former English Defence League leader, and anti-Islam rabble rouser, who was declared bankrupt last year following the loss of a defamation case.
Why was he banned?
Robinson was suspended from Twitter in 2018, but the reasons for his ban are unclear. However, given his antics, he probably fell foul of the platform’s polices on hateful conduct.
Chances of a comeback?
Robinson will probably be itching to return to Twitter, where he previously ammased over 400,000 followers, if only to convince his acolytes to help him pay off his mounting legal fees and fines.
7/10
Milo Yiannopoulos
Who?
Notorious right-wing troll and former writer for American far-right news site Breitbart. Yiannopoulos once referred to himself as “the most fabulous supervillain on the internet” and called Donald Trump “daddy”. Could Twitter finally deliver the father-son reunion no one asked for?
Why was he banned?
Yiannopoulos was given the boot due to his part in the online abuse of actor Leslie Jones over her role in the Ghostbusters reboot. He later told told Breitbart.com his suspension was “cowardly”, and evidence that Twitter was a “no-go zone for conservatives”.
Chances of a comeback?
Musk’s criticism of the culture wars and Twitter’s woke workplace ethos should give Yiannopoulos hope for a return. He’s also apparently been cosying up to Kanye West ahead of the disgraced mogul’s apparent 2024 presidential run. So he should feel right at home on the new-look Twitter.
9/10
