October 12, 2022 – Twitter is reportedly reviewing its policies around permanent user ban for serious guidelines violations, according to a report by Financial Times.
The social networking firm is exploring alternative content moderation tools that could replace the permanent ban it imposes as a penalty for certain violations on the platform. The FT report highlights Twitter could be “potentially bringing its content moderation more in line with Elon Musk’s vision for the social media platform”. Any change in the policies, however, are unlikely to allow former US president Donald Trump back on the platform, confirmed two insiders.
Trump, who had over 88 million followers at the time, was banned from the platform following the January 6 US Capitol attack. Removing bans for violations of policy prohibiting incitement to violence is not under consideration, the insiders said.
“Instead, staffers are looking at areas where they feel Twitter may have been disproportionately heavy handed in cutting off users from its services for lesser offences, such as around the sharing of misleading information.”
Last week, Musk revived his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter. The high-profile deal was proposed back in April, but the billionaire, who owns mega tech firms Tesla and SpaceX, had attempted to walk away just weeks later, citing, in his words, the executives’ misleading claims about the number of bot or spam accounts on the social networking platform.
The controversial backout led to widespread media attention, with Twitter suing Musk over his failure to finalise the deal. However, two weeks before Twitter and Musk were scheduled for a legal showdown, the billionaire, in a surprise move, revived the deal, thereby averting what could turn into a highly publicised legal battle between Musk and one of the most influential social media platforms.
Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist”, had earlier said Twitter would revise its moderation policies and move away from permanent bans if he acquired the platform. His free speech promises have raised concerns from experts and analysts, who are of the opinion the billionaire’s takeover of a platform like Twitter would not be a “free speech rights victory” as he would have more control over what should and should not be posted on the platform.
