Since Elon Musk took over Twitter under the promise of making the platform the major social network for free speech, many accounts of individuals and celebrities have been reinstated. Beyond Donald Trump and Kanye West, let’s come back to the other controversial accounts restored during this recent weekend.
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Weeks before the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk was finalized, the world’s richest man slammed the social network, saying it failed to uphold “fundamental principles of free speech” and that it “fundamentally undermines democracy”.
Musk, who calls himself “free speech absolutistnevertheless established several rules for parody accounts since his takeover of the platform, and he attacked the many people who criticized his management method.
As the relentless chaos continues on Twitter, many accounts have recently been restored. Donald Trump and Kanye West made headlines this weekend, but other controversial accounts are also affected. Here they are presented:
Andrew Tate
Andrew Tate was suspended in 2017 for tweeting that women should “take some responsibilityfor being sexually assaulted.
Tate has become what is called an influencer inceli.e. an individual carrying masculinist, misogynistic and macho commentswhich sells them as guides to life and behavior.
His account was reinstated this weekend.
Jordan Peterson
The Canadian psychologist is also back on the platform. Intellectual for some, charlatan for others, Jordan Peterson is not unanimous, but each of his outings is sure to make headlines.
As a reminder, he was suspended for misgendering actor Elliot Page and refusing to take down his tweet, insulting him and his transition (Elliot Page was known as Ellen Page prior to his trans coming out and transitioning ).
Following his suspension, Peterson had published a video of more than 15 min on YouTube explaining that he would rather die than delete the hateful tweet. This video became an inspiration for many memes thereafter.
Since his return, Peterson seems to want to resume his activities on the site at the same pace as before his suspension, with a significant number of tweets per day.
The Babylon Bee
If the liberals have The Onion, the conservatives have The Babylon Bee. The right-ranked parody news site’s Twitter account was suspended in March for an anti-trans comment targeting personality Rachel Levine.
NY Post Screenshot
The controversial publication of the site The Babylon Bee having led to his banishment from Twitter.
As for Jordan Peterson, the site and its director Seth Dillon explained that he will never compromise the “truth and therefore will not delete the hateful tweet”.
The site had its Twitter restored this weekend.
Kathy Griffin
The actress was suspended a few days after Elon Musk took power on the platform.
She had decided to transform her avatar and her account into a parody of Elon Musk’s account, without mentioning in her biography on the site that the latter was not the billionaire.
This went against new rules regarding parody accounts that Musk had enacted through a tweet shared on the platform.
His account was also restored this past weekend, like many other accounts that had paid into the parody in recent weeks.
Project Truth
In February 2021, Twitter permanently suspended the account of conservative organization and controversial “investigative” site of right-wing activist James O’Keefe, Project Veritas., for violating the rules of the platform.
The decision followed what a Twitter spokesperson described to CNN Business such as repeated violations of platform policies prohibiting sharing — or threatening to share — other people’s private information without their consent. No tweet in particular was presented to justify the decision to expel the social network.
This ban was done almost in concert with that of Donald Trump and other accounts that encouraged or promulgated hateful and conspiratorial comments that may have played a role in instigating and carrying out the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This account has also been restored.