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Twitter boss Elon Musk has lifted another ban on Project Veritas, a right-leaning investigative journalism organization.
Last year, Twitter restricted the organization after allegedly posting a video showing Facebook Vice President Guy Rosen appearing to admit that the social media giant constructed a platform that was designed to freeze commenting when so-called hate speech or violence was detected by algorithms, but without actually confirming the speech was violent or hateful.
Project Veritas’ reinstatement was noted by Alex Lorusso, who is the executive producer of “The Benny Report” on Newsmax TV, who himself was recently reinstated to Twitter.
God bless @Project_Veritas for their work exposing Twitter when @ElonMusk was in the early stages of buying the platform: https://t.co/CkmqDbhEVT
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) November 20, 2022
“God bless @Project_Veritas for their work exposing Twitter when @ElonMusk was in the early stages of buying the platform,” Lorusso added.
Musk is continuing to make major changes at the platform since he purchased it and took over its leadership.
On Friday, he announced that he had reinstated three people who had previously been banned, including one after he took over.
He had not, however, made a decision about whether to reinstate former President Donald Trump, though he since reinstated Trump after taking a poll on the matter, in which a majority of respondents favored his reinstatement.
“Kathie Griffin, Jorden Peterson & Babylon Bee have been reinstated. Trump decision has not yet been made,” Musk tweeted.
Kathie Griffin, Jorden Peterson & Babylon Bee have been reinstated.
Trump decision has not yet been made.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
The survey on Trump, however, was questioned by some, including one of the former president’s top attorneys, Jenna Ellis.
“Why do you need a poll for this?” she tweeted in response to the survey.
Why do you need a poll for this?
— Jenna Ellis 🍊🦅 (@JennaEllisEsq) November 19, 2022
Others unbanned have included Dr. Jordan B. Peterson and The Babylon Bee.
“With his latest move to unlock Project Veritas’ account, other users like Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe still remain in Twitter jail,” The Daily Wire reported. “Twitter permanently banned the account of the O’Keefe last year for allegedly sharing ‘private information’ without consent.”
Musk said in May that he would reverse Twitter’s permanent ban on Trump if his $44 billion bid to buy the social media company were successful, as it was.
Musk told the Financial Times that the ban “was morally wrong and flat-out stupid.”
The previous month, Trump said he “probably” would not return to Twitter if Musk reinstated his account.
In an interview with Sirius XM’s Americano Media, Trump said he “probably wouldn’t have any interest” in returning to the platform, where he had almost 90 million followers.
“You know, Twitter has become very boring. They’ve gotten rid of a lot of their good voices … a lot of their conservative voices,” Trump said.
Nevertheless, in a video leaked by Project Veritas over the summer while his $44 billion purchase of Twitter was ongoing, Musk pledged to make the platform more open-minded.
“I think it’s essential to have free speech and for us to be able to communicate freely,” he said in the video. “If there are multiple opinions — but just make sure we’re not sort of driving the narrative.”
“In order for people to have trust in Twitter — I think it’s extremely important that there’ll be transparency,” Musk added.
While more recently, he has taken a lot of heat for mass layoffs and an employee exodus from the company, he warned employees in May about being ready to work hard.
“Work ethic expectations would be extreme, but much less than I demand of myself,” the billionaire said in a tweet.
Also, work ethic expectations would be extreme, but much less than I demand of myself
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2022
Earlier, Musk shared some more of his vision for the platform.
“If Twitter acquisition completes, the company will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware,” he tweeted Friday morning in a post containing a link to the Fortune story.
“I strongly believe that all managers in a technical area must be technically excellent. Managers in software must write great software or it’s like being a cavalry captain who can’t ride a horse!” he added.
