With the back and forth between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter still ongoing, it seems that the latter is reviewing its policies around permanent bans.
Twitter isn't exactly a stranger to permanent bans, which is its harshest punishment if you're a user of the platform. Of course, the most notable instance of this is of former U.S. president Donald Trump being banned almost two years ago. More recently, rapper Kanye West had some of his reportedly inflammatory tweets deleted by the company too, without a permanent ban being handed down. However, things may be set to change with Musk's acquisition of the social media company looming.
A report from Financial Times claims that Twitter is reviewing its policies surrounding permanent bans and may be considering replacing this penalty with something else. The outlet has cited multiple people familiar with the matter for this claim. In a separate statement to Reuters, Twitter somewhat hinted at this change too, saying that:
Our core tenets — choice and control, transparency, legitimacy, and fairness — have been guiding our work for years, and as the public conversation continues to evolve, our approach will too.
It's worth highlighting that a few months ago, Musk criticized the nature of permanent bans, saying that the penalty should only be reserved for spam accounts. He also argued that for the real people who do tweet something destructive or illegal, there should be a temporary suspension or a timeout. It's unclear if Musk's comments are what triggered this discussion though.
Whether Twitter modifies its policies or not, only time will tell, but we'll likely hear more on this front if and when Musk does complete his ~$44 billion acquisition of the platform.
Source: Finacial Times (paywall) via Reuters
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