• Elon Musk is polling users on whether previously banned users should be unbanned.
• This follows a poll that lead to former US President Donald Trump being unbanned earlier this week.
• This latest decision has brought into question promises of a moderation council.

After lifting former US President Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter, the platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, is now thinking of unbanning almost everybody.

On Wednesday he teased his next move at Twitter via his favourite medium, a poll. The topic of this poll however is cause for concern. The owner is now toying with the idea of unbanning all individuals who have previously been banned from the platform so long as they haven’t broken the law or engaged in spam.

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

As of time of writing the poll has garnered some 2.5 million responses with 72.7 percent voting yes.

This is just the latest decision by Twitter’s owner that is seemingly being made through a poll which generally only attracts a small percentage of Twitter’s users. In addition, this makes statements made soon after the takeover of the platform, moot.

The day new management entered the building they stated that, “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”

Given everything that has happened since this statement, we’re starting to wonder if the moderation council is simply the Twitter user base. If that is the case, a tweet on the owner’s account – who is able to block any user he chooses – may not be the best medium for these decisions.

Earlier this week, buried in his replies, the owner shot back at a user who claimed this promise was fictional by stating that the moderation council was formulated as part of an agreement with political and social activist groups.

According to the owner, the agreement was to not kill Twitter by starving it of advertising revenue. However, because advertisers paused campaigns after the takeover, this was seen as the fault of those groups and so the owner says that deal is no longer valid.

A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition.

They broke the deal.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2022

The idea of unbanning individuals is also one that seems incredibly reckless especially if the litmus test is whether a person broke the law or is a spambot.

Furthermore, last week the owner of Twitter stated that they would deboost and demonetise “negative/hate” tweets so that no advertising would run on these tweets.

Perhaps then the play is that the owner will allow previously banned individuals back on the platform, boosting user numbers and potentially Twitter Blue subscriptions. Once those folks start spewing hatred and the like, their tweets effectively get shadow banned and the owner gets to report that Twitter is successful again.

This is pure speculation on our part but with no clear trajectory for Twitter and communications limited to the owner’s account, that’s the best we have.

Of course, all of this hinges on the idea that the users who remain on Twitter as of now, continue to do so when users that have been banned inevitably return.

We’re still trying to come to grips that major decisions are being made through easily abused polls. Let that sink in.