Banned Twitter accounts reactivated

Is it a sophisticated marketing strategy or does Musk firmly believe in freedom of expression? Several accounts of notoriously banned twitterers have become active again, but they have to behave.

The return of the Donald

One of the most infamous and controversial Twitter accounts was of course that of then-President Donald Trump. His handle #realdonaldtrump was shut down by Twitter after (according to Twitter and the political establishment) Trump called for a storming of the Capitol via Twitter. This because he felt that he was wrongly seen as the loser of the elections.

Meanwhile, Trump has started his own social network, Truth Social, accessible only from the United States, which is languishing. If Trump were to leave this network, it would collapse completely. This is probably why Trump is still not active on Twitter, but this could change at any time.

Alex Jones, the minus one and a half billion man

Another notorious Twitter user who is currently pretty much in the firing line of the US Department of Justice is Alex Jones, nicknamed the Reptilian Man. He proclaimed for years that the mass slaughter at an American school was fake news. The court has now awarded damages to the relatives of the children killed, and the lawyers, of more than 1 billion dollars.

At this point, both his media companies and himself are personally bankrupt. He was previously banned from Twitter in 2018 for “abusive behaviour”, not for the first time. His account has not yet been reactivated.

The return and final farewell to Kanye “Ye” West

Another colorful figure who was banned from Twitter was Ye, better known as Kanye West. He was removed from Twitter after he made discriminatory comments about Jews that would have gotten him jailed in Germany.

Musk let him in again, but an interview with Alex Jones, in which he revealed himself to be a great admirer of a certain notorious mustachioed German dictator and showed a swastika, and then posted it on Twitter, even Musk got too much. It therefore seems that there is indeed moderation in Musk’s new Twitter, but that the standards are considerably more flexible than they were.

Use of Twitter is growing strongly

At the moment, early December 2022, the new policy for activities on Twitter seems to be working out well. The number of registered users and the use of Twitter are increasing sharply. Musk is now on a collision course with the European Union, which wants much more content moderation and censorship.