Musk: Banned Twitter users will not immediately have accounts restored
ByBob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
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ByBob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Elon Musk said that Twitter will not allow anyone banned from the social media site to have their accounts reinstated until the company sets up a “clear process” to do so.
Musk who closed a $44 billion deal for Twitter last week, said in a tweet early Wednesday that he had spoken to several civil society leaders about enacting a procedure that “will continue to combat hate and harassment and enforce its election integrity policies.”
The decision means that people banned from the site for violating Twitter’s rules for harassment, violence, or election and COVID-related misinformation will not be able to return before Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections, according to The Associated Press.
Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks
Musk has said that people he would welcome back to the social media platform would include former President Donald Trump, whose Twitter account was suspended after the company linked his comments to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, USA Today reported.
At the time, Twitter said it made the decision “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” CNBC reported.
Musk also said that Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Musk has also said that Twitter must be “warm and welcoming to all.”
Musk met on Tuesday with leaders from the NAACP, Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change, according to the AP. Those who attended the meeting asked Musk not to reinstate banned users before the midterm elections, Jessica González, an attorney and co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press who attended the meeting, told the news organization.
“He agreed to all of those things in our meeting, but actions speak louder than words,” González told the AP. “I’ve had a lot of meetings with tech CEOs. And I’ve been made a lot of empty promises. And with Elon Musk in particular, he’s shown himself to be inconsistent, saying one thing that one day and another thing the next. So we fully intend to hold him accountable to these promises and more.”
Musk spoke with Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of the Anti-Defamation League; NAACP head Derrick Johnson; and Ken Hersh, CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and a longtime financier, according to The Wall Street Journal. No group representing the LGBTQ community was present during Tuesday’s meeting, the AP reported. Twitter did not immediately reply to a request for comment on whether Musk plans to meet with one.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk’s tweets were a response to a post from Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, that said: “We’re staying vigilant against attempts to manipulate conversations about the 2022 US midterms.”
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Photos: Elon Musk through the years Here are some memorable photos of SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk through the years. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2008: Tesla founder Elon Musk attends the launch party for the Tesla Roadster, the world's first highway-capable all electric car available in the United States, at the Tesla Flagship Store on May 1, 2008, in Los Angeles. (Vince Bucci/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2009: CEO Elon Musk (left) arrives at the Tesla UK launch on June 25, 2009, in London. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Tesla)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2010: Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger laugh during a news conference at Tesla Motors headquarters May 20, 2010, in Palo Alto, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2011: Talulah Riley and Elon Musk attend the 2011 Orange British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House on February 13, 2011, in London. (Ian Gavan/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2012: Director Bryn Mooser, executive producer Elon Musk, executive producer Olivia Wilde and director David Darg of the film "Baseball in the Time of Cholera" attend the "Help Wanted" Shorts Program during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival at the AMC Lowes Village on April 21, 2012, in New York City. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2013: CEO and CTO of SpaceX and CEO and Chief Product Architect of Tesla Motors Elon Musk participates in a discussion at the New York Times 2013 DealBook Conference in New York at the New York Times Building on November 12, 2013, in New York City. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images for The New York Times)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2014: Actress Talulah Riley (left) and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk attend the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter on March 2, 2014, in West Hollywood, California. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2015: Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during an event to launch the new Tesla Model X Crossover SUV on September 29, 2015, in Fremont, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2016: Elon Musk and actress Kate Hudson attend the 2016 InStyle and Warner Bros. 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards Post-Party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 10, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images for InStyle)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2017: Maye Musk (left) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attend the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 26, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2018: Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & the Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018, in New York City. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2019: SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk (right) speaks with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (center) while viewing the OctaWeb, part of the Merlin engine used for the Falcon rockets, at the SpaceX Headquarters, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, in Hawthorne, California. (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2020: SpaceX founder Elon Musk celebrates after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned Crew Dragon spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Photos: Elon Musk through the years 2021: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Armin Laschet, CDU Federal Chairman and Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, talk during a tour of the plant of the future foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory on August 13, 2021, in Grünheide near Berlin, Germany. (Patrick Pleul - Pool/Getty Images)