Banned Twitter Accounts Won’t be Restored Before Midterms, ‘At Least a Few More Weeks’

Since taking ownership of the company, Musk has fired Twitter’s board of directors and made himself the sole director. He now has complete control over the company and can make decisions about the platform without board approval, an arrangement he has said is “temporary.”

Musk’s tweet signals that former President Donald Trump and other banned accounts will not return to the platform before the midterm elections on Nov. 8. Musk provided the update in reply to a tweet from Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, who said the platform is “staying vigilant against attempts to manipulate conversations” about the midterms.

Musk said he has spoken with civil society leaders — including executives at the Anti-Defamation League, Free Press and the NAACP — about “how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies.” The content moderation council that Musk is organizing “will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence,” he said.

Tech Xplore added:

Twitter users have been watching closely to see whether Musk will reinstate Trump, banned for inciting last year’s attack on the Capitol by a mob seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and other deplatformed users.

The potential reinstatement of such accounts banned for violating the site’s content moderation rules has been seen as a bellwether of where Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” wants to take the site he describes as a global town square.

But on Wednesday the South African billionaire said the wait will have to continue a little longer.