The new boss of Twitter had posed the question on the platform: whether or not to "offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided they have not broken the law or not engaged in blatant spam.

New Twitter boss Elon Musk announced on Thursday that he will reinstate suspended accounts on the platform next week, "provided they have not broken the law or sent outrageous spam."

“The people have spoken,” tweeted Mr. Musk, who published a poll on his network on Wednesday after which a majority emerged in favor of this measure. "The amnesty begins next week," he added a few days after proceeding in the same way on behalf of Donald Trump.

“The people have spoken, amnesty starts next week,” Mr. Musk tweeted on Thursday, a holiday in the United States for the feast of Thanksgiving, accompanying his publication of the message “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” (“The voice of the people is the voice of God”).

It is with this same expression that he had, on Saturday, rehabilitated the account of former American President Donald Trump, banned from the social network after the assault on the Capitol in Washington in January 2021.

The leader of Tesla and SpaceX had made this decision following a similar consultation on the blue bird network, a method of uncertain representativeness. A narrow majority (51.8%) of the 15 million voters had expressed themselves in favor of a return of the Republican billionaire, who has not tweeted since the restoration of his account.

Elon Musk has repeatedly explained that he bought Twitter because he considers the platform to be the "digital public square" essential to democracy in the world.

The richest man in the world considers the moderation of content too restrictive, but his absolutist vision of freedom of expression raises fears of a surge of abuse (misinformation, hate speech) on the social network.

Many brands have already suspended ad spending on Twitter, which is 90% dependent on it for revenue.