Banned from Twitter: accounts that may be reprieved after Musk takeover

theguardian.com:

Elon Musk’s self-avowed status as a “free speech absolutist” raises the possibility he will lift the ban on people whose Twitter accounts have been permanently suspended from the platform. The world’s richest man, who has agreed to buy Twitter for $44bn (£34bn), has said he prefers giving users a “timeout” instead of a lifelong ban.

Here are some of the most high-profile figures banned from Twitter who might be hoping for a reprieve.

The then US president’s account was suspended on 8 January 2021, two days after the storming of the US Capitol. Announcing the ban, Twitter cited Trump’s repeated violations of the company’s rules and the risk of the “further incitement of violence”. Trump, who had more than 88 million followers when he was banned, said on Monday he does not intend to return to Twitter, sticking with his rival platform, Truth Social.

The personal account of the Republican Georgia congresswoman was suspended permanently in January this year for violating policies on coronavirus misinformation. She has since expressed hope, on her official government account, that she would again be able to tweet using her private profile in the wake of the Musk deal.

The rightwing conspiracy theorist’s account, and that of his Infowars website, were suspended in 2018 due to violations of the platform’s abusive behaviour policy. The two accounts had about 1.3 million followers combined.

The rightwing writer was banned in 2016 for his role in the online abuse of actor Leslie Jones over her role in a reboot of Ghostbusters. Yiannopoulos told Breitbart.com his suspension was “cowardly” and evidence that Twitter was a “no-go zone for conservatives”.

The popular UK news aggregation service was banned in the UK in January for violating