Elon Musk to remove permanent bans on Twitter, opening the door for cancelled personalities

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Following the completion of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, inside sources revealed that Musk, who is the company’s new CEO, is preparing to reverse lifetime bans.

Musk’s reversal of lifetime bans would enable numerous conservatives and “canceled” personalities like former President Donald Trump, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, Andrew Tate, Carpe Donktum, Meghan Murphy, James Lindsay, Katie Hopkins, and Gavin McInnes back onto the platform. 

Sources speaking to Bloomberg told the publication that permanent bans were being done away with on the platform, because the concept of banning someone for life conflicts with Musk’s views on the subject. 

“Musk also intends to do away with permanent bans on users because he doesn’t believe in lifelong prohibitions, the person said. That means people previously booted off the platform may be allowed to return, though it was unclear if that included former president Donald Trump, the person said,” reported Bloomberg. 

Effectively, Musk’s new rule means that no one will be permanently banned for political speech, and that only those who use the platform to commit a crime or organize violence will be restricted from using Twitter. 

When pointed out by popular conservative account Catturd that users were still search banned and censored on Twitter, Musk replied to say that he is now looking into the matter. 

I will be digging in more today

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

If Trump, who was banned in the days following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, is unbanned, it remains unclear if he will start posting again on Twitter due to his existing relationship with Truth Social. 

“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” said Trump in April. It remains to be seen if he intends to stay off. 

Given that Musk is only a day into the job, it will be some time before all the changes go through. 

In a notice to Twitter’s advertisers, the company’s now-CEO said, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”