Musk’s original plan was to have a moderation council which would decide if a person should be banned, but now it appears that he has realised that is physically impossible. To get around the issue, Musk is using the poll function on the site to ask users if he should let most suspended accounts back.

Yesterday he asked: “Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?” He gave users 24 hours to vote, and so far, “yes” is ahead by a wide margin.

Curiously when Musk previously ran a poll asking whether he should allow former president Donald Trump back onto the site, with the “yes” responses winning by a relatively narrow margin, but it is more likely that the poll attracted more press attention. 

Musk has given at least some exceptions to his free speech policies before. For example, he’s said that Alex Jones wouldn’t be allowed on the platform. He has also banned his staff, or former staff members from disagreeing with him.

What is interesting is how Musk is using a fake internet democracy to establish his policy. After all, no one can complain if they voted to allow the nutjobs back and if they do, they are being anti-democratic. How “democratic” a poll on Musk’s thread is, though, is an interesting point.