Musk Reinstates Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson Twitter Accounts

Elon Musk has announced the accounts of comedian Kathy Griffin, author Jordan Peterson, and the conservative satirical site Babylon Bee have been reinstated. 

In a tweet(Opens in a new window) posted yesterday, he added that the decision on bringing back Trump’s account had “not yet been made”, but posted a poll(Opens in a new window) late on Friday asking users to vote on reinstating the former President.

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Musk contended last month that there would not be any major account reinstatements until a content moderation council with “widely diverse viewpoints” convened. It is unclear if the council has already met or is still going ahead.

Announcing the reinstatements, Musk unveiled(Opens in a new window) a new freedom of speech approach that would see “negative/hate tweets deboosted & demonetized”, but not taken down. He added that offending tweets would not be found on the platform unless specifically sought out. 

Griffin was suspended from the platform earlier this month for impersonating the new Twitter CEO amid a crackdown on parody accounts, while Peterson had seen his account taken down(Opens in a new window) in June. The clinical psychologist was reportedly suspended following a post that deadnamed(Opens in a new window) actor Elliot Page, and referred to the actor, who identifies as a trans man, as “her.”

At the time of his removal Musk defended(Opens in a new window) the author, who is regularly lauded in conservative circles for his stances on feminism, race, and trans issues, saying the company had “gone too far in squashing dissenting opinions.”

The right-wing outlet Babylon Bee had its Twitter account suspended earlier this year after breaching the platform’s guidelines on hate speech after also misgendering(Opens in a new window) a trans person. The outlet’s CEO Seth Dillon reportedly refused to comply with a directive to remove the offending tweet that labeled US Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine as a “man”, meaning the satirical site, whose tagline is “Fake News You Can Trust”, was not allowed back on the platform.

On Peterson’s return to Twitter, he thanked(Opens in a new window) Musk, and tweeted(Opens in a new window) that his reinstatement was “another defeat for the woke mob.” 

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Meanwhile, it appears that the controversial internet personality Andrew Tate, who was booted off most major social media platforms earlier this year for airing misogynistic content has also had his account(Opens in a new window) brought back online, per a Dexerto report. Tate, who is trending(Opens in a new window) on the platform, has been widely condemned for various extreme talking points which included a claim(Opens in a new window) that women bear some responsibility for being sexually assaulted. 

There does appear to be a red line for Musk concerning reinstatements, however. Oliver Darcy, CNN’s senior media reporter, screenshotted(Opens in a new window) a thread where Musk had said no to a request from a user to bring back far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones was last week ordered(Opens in a new window) by a judge to pay families affected by the Sandy Hook shootings $1.44 Billion for alleging the massacre which killed 20 first graders was staged. 

Twitter has been hit by a tumultuous few weeks since the CEO took the reins on Oct. 27. After immediately sacking roughly half of the 7,500-person workforce, on Wednesday Musk sent out an internal memo(Opens in a new window) to staff leaving them with an option to either remain at the company and sign up to a “hardcore” culture of “long hours at high intensity”, or leave what he referred to as “Twitter 2.0.”

The ultimatum led to hundreds of resignations that have put the immediate and long-term future of the company into doubt. According to The Verge, several engineers belonging to critical teams such as the “Command Center” who fix internal problems decided to resign alongside the entire team(Opens in a new window) that maintains Twitter’s core system libraries. 

#RIPTwitter and #TwitterDown began trending on Friday morning as users reported(Opens in a new window) outages and celebrities posted their Mastodon, Facebook, and Instagram handle en masse. Meanwhile, Musk made light of the situation by posting memes and tweeting(Opens in a new window): “Record numbers of users are logging in to see if Twitter is dead, ironically making it more alive than ever!”

Yesterday, activists projected insults(Opens in a new window) at the Twitter boss onto the company’s San Francisco HQ, calling for his resignation.

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According to footage posted online, the insults included “supreme parasite”, “mediocre manchild”, and “worthless billionaire.”