After ‘The Great Reinstatement’, Chief Twit Elon Musk, as he furthers his ‘Amnesty’ initiative, has led Twitter to outline how it will be enforcing its rules from now on. So, this must be it, right? That long-awaited moderation overhaul that Musk has fervently pursued. Surprisingly, the ‘new’ rules seem to include less restrictive measures for certain violations.
“We have been proactively reinstating previously suspended accounts […] We did not reinstate accounts that engaged in illegal activity, threats of harm or violence, large-scale spam, and platform manipulation, or when there was no recent appeal to have the account reinstated. Going forward, we will take less severe actions, such as limiting the reach of policy-violating Tweets or asking you to remove Tweets before you can continue using your account.”
Moderately Speaking
This is in line with Musk’s previously stated ‘freedom of speech, not freedom of reach’ approach, which will see Twitter lean more towards leaving content active in the app, but reducing its impact algorithmically if it breaks any rules. This means that a lot of Tweets that would have previously been deemed as violative will now remain. While Musk notes that no ads will be displayed against such content, it might be a difficult rule to enforce, given how the Tweet timeline functions.
It does align with Musk’s free speech approach though, and reduces the onus on Twitter in moderating speech, at least to an extent. It’ll still need to access each instance, case-by-case, but users themselves will be less aware of penalties – though Musk has also flagged adding more notifications and explainers to outline potential reach penalties.
The bigger question is just how do you definitively measure things like threats of violence? Former President Donald Trump was sanctioned under this policy, but many, including Musk, were critical of Twitter’s decision to do so, given that Trump was an elected representative at the time. Twitter is also finding it hard to remove Tweets under these policies in other regions.
It’ll be interesting to see how Twitter handles this, given its more lax approach when it comes to moderation. Many questions have already been raised on this front, such as the time Twitter took down a BB Documentary at the request of the Indian Government.
The Wrap
Essentially, Twitter Twitter’s approach has changed when it decides to actually do it, but the rules, as such, will be effectively governed by Musk himself, who’s likely to just continue making drastic rule changes based on experience and a personal agenda. Twitter also says that starting Feb 1st, any previously suspended accounts will be able to appeal for a life of their suspension, and will be evaluated under its new criteria for reinstatement.
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