Elon Musk Runs Poll On Trump's Twitter Reinstatement, Revokes Ban On Other Controversial Accounts: Latest Poll Numbers

Elon Musk, who premised his Twitter buy on his quest to make it a platform for free speech, has taken baby steps in that direction.

What Happened: On Friday, Musk took to the microblogging platform to say the Twitter bans of Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson, and Babylon Bee have been revoked.

Griffin, a comedian, was booted off the platform in early November after she impersonated Musk, changing her account name to “Elon Musk” and using Musk’s picture for her profile. Following the ban, she began tweeting from her dead mother Maggie Griffin’s account and continued to troll the Tesla chief.

Incidentally, Musk misspelled her name as “Kathie.”  Reacting to her reinstatement, Griffin said on Instagram, “Dear Eilon. You f**ked up fool. I’m going downstairs to my basement of heads. You’re up. Xxoo, The Beheader.”

Canadian self-help author Peterson was permanently banned from Twitter for imitating Musk’s profile, but his account was suspended ahead of Musk taking over the platform. Immediately after his return, Peterson tweeted to Musk, asking him not to allow “anonymous troll-demons” to post with verified people.

He was replying to Musk’s tweet that the new Twitter policy promotes "freedom of speech" but not "freedom of reach." “Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter,” Musk said.

Just like Peterson, Babylon Bee, a conservative Christian news satire website that publishes satirical articles on religion, politics, current events and public figures, was banned ahead of Musk’s takeover.

Trump Left In The Cold: One notable person not included in Musk’s clemency was former President Donald Trump. Trump, who at his peak commanded about 89 million Twitter followers, was handed a permanent ban from the platform following the Jan. 6, 2020 Capitol riots.

While initially tweeting that a decision on Trump’s reinstatement hasn’t been made yet, Musk ran a Twitter poll on whether Trump should be given access to the platform.

In a follow-up tweet, Musk implied he would abide by the verdict of the people. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he said, using a Latin phrase that translates to the voice of the people is the voice of God.
With about 11 hours still left on the poll and almost 10 million votes cast, about 52.3% favored Trump’s reinstatement, compared to 47.7% against it.

Replying to the poll comedian Jenny Johnson said, “If Trump loses the poll, he’s gonna say it was rigged.”

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Photo: Created with images from Tesla Owners Club Belgium and Gage Skidmore on flickr