Musk, the self-made tech billionaire, has joined Twitter’s board of directors and is expected to make significant changes to the social media giant’s policies on free speech and banned accounts.
Elon Musk launched a poll on Twitter at the end of March asking whether Twitter adheres to free speech principles, which he said are essential to the proper functioning of a democratic society. Over two million people took the poll, and about 70% of them said “No.”
Musk should restore free speech policies to Twitter and allow former President Trump to return from his suspension, according to prominent conservatives like Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert.
People and organizations that have been banned from Twitter for violating the platform’s content moderation rules can be found here.
Convicted felon Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager.
For sexually harassing journalist Lauren Duca, Shkreli was permanently banned from Twitter in January of this year.
Conservative political strategist and lobbyist Roger Stone
In October last year, Stone was permanently banned from Twitter for harassing CNN reporters.
Conspiracist and host of right-wing radio show Alex Jones
For inciting violence and abusive behavior, Jones was permanently banned from Twitter in September 2018.
Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
When Bannon made the suggestion on his podcast that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, and FBI Director Christopher Wray be beheaded, his Twitter account was permanently banned in November 2020.
Former American president Donald Trump
One year after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Trump and his presidential campaign account @TeamTrump were both permanently banned from Twitter.
Even though the ban on Trump’s @Twitter account was lifted because of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Twitter insisted that “policy decisions” were independent of the board members or shareholders and that they would not be rescinded.
The 14th Congressional District of Georgia’s Republican Representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene,
For multiple violations of Twitter’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, Greene was permanently banned from Twitter in January 2022.
Founder of Project Veritas and conservative political activist James O’Kefe.
In April 2021, O’Keefe was permanently banned from Twitter for violating its rules against platform manipulation and spam by operating fake accounts.
Virologist and immunologist Robert Malone, MD.
As a result of repeatedly breaking Twitter’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, Malone was permanently banned from the service in December 2021.
The Babylon Bee, a conservative humor publication, activist Charlie Kirk, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson are all conservatives.
As a result of their sexist and homophobic tweets, The Babylon Bee, Kirk, and Carlson have had their Twitter accounts temporarily disabled. The three accounts mocked USA Today for including transgender official Rachel Levine on their list of “Women of the Year.”
Twitter prohibits users from misgendering transgender people because of its “hateful conduct” policy.
In October 2021, Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District had his Twitter account temporarily suspended for referring to Levine as a man.
Even though Antifa members, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have all used violence-inciting language or violated Twitter’s content rules, they have all been spared suspension and censorship.