Billionaire Elon Musk has said there will be no changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies for now after completing his $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover of the platform.
“To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies,” he tweeted.
Earlier he announced the creation of a new council to moderate posts.
He also tweeted that “anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons” would be “freed from Twitter jail”.
“Comedy is now legal on Twitter,” he said.
Senior figures at Twitter have announced their exits since Mr Musk took over after long delays to the deal.
Questions are focused on Mr Musk’s future plans for the site.
The potential changes have drawn scrutiny from regulators and divided Twitter’s own users, some of whom are worried Mr Musk will loosen regulations governing hate speech and misinformation, and some of whom feel the previous management curtailed free speech with overly rigorous rules.
Mr Musk said Twitter would be forming a council with “widely diverse viewpoints”.
“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” he said, shortly before confirming that Twitter had ended artist Kanye West’s suspension from the platform before his acquisition.
Rapper Kanye West, known as Ye, had been suspended from the platform for anti-Semitic comments.
Finance chief Ned Segal was among the senior leaders to announce his exit from the company after Musk’s takeover.
Chairman of the board Bret Taylor has also left and it was widely reported that Twitter’s chief executive Parag Agrawal – a target of Mr Musk’s criticism – was among the people fired, although Mr Agrawal still has “ceo @twitter” on his Twitter profile.
let the good times roll
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
General Motors – the largest US carmaker and a rival to Mr Musk’s Tesla – says it has temporarily halted paid advertising on Twitter. GM said it was “engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership”.
“The bird is free,” Mr Musk wrote on the platform late on Thursday, while assuring advertisers in a public note that he did not want Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape”.
He has signalled he wants widespread change at Twitter. A self-styled “free speech absolutist”, he has said he sees the platform as a forum for public debate and is willing to reverse bans on controversial users, including former President Donald Trump.
Ex-finance chief Segal tweeted that his time at the company was the “most fulfilling of my career” and reflected on the strain caused by the uncertainty of the last six months.
“You learn so much when times are challenging and unpredictable, when we are tired or feel our integrity questioned,” Mr Segal said, alluding to Mr Musk’s public criticism of the company’s leadership.
“I have great hope for Twitter,” he added.
In Europe, the commissioner in charge of overseeing the EU’s digital market, Thierry Breton, tweeted: “In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules” – suggesting regulators will take a tough stance against any relaxation of Twitter’s policies.
In the US, Stop the Deal, a coalition of left-wing activist groups including Fair Vote UK and Media Matters for America, said Mr Musk had a “thirst for chaos” and his potential plans would make Twitter “an even more hate-filled cesspool, leading to irreparable real-world harm”.
Mr Trump, who was banned from Twitter last year following the Capitol riot in January 2021, said he was happy Twitter was now in “sane hands” while stating his “love” for his own Twitter-like service, Truth Social.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and current deputy head of the Security Council, also welcomed the new ownership.
“Good luck @elonmusk in overcoming political bias and ideological dictatorship on Twitter,” tweeted Mr Medvedev.
