Since Elon Musk bought Twitter in October, self-proclaimed “free speech” has worked its way through the company’s moderation policies.
He initially argued that bans should be reserved for spam accounts, offering “amnesty” to thousands of suspended users and the reinstatement of former President Donald J. Trump. Last week he suspended several journalists, alleging they had shared public flight details that revealed his private location. (Many of the bans were later reversed.)
To gauge how Mr. Musk’s content decisions affected Twitter’s content, The New York Times analyzed tweets from more than 1,000 users whose accounts were recently restored. The posts were collected for The Times by Bright Data, a social media tracking company, using a list of recovered users identified by Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer who has tracked extremism on Twitter.
Most of the recovered accounts were deeply partisan — often vocal supporters of Mr. Trump — and they seemed eager to bring their fiery recordings back to the social network. It wasn’t clear from the data why the users were originally suspended or why they were reinstated, though their post history suggests many were banned as Twitter cracked down on Covid-19 and election-related misinformation.
Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said the message Mr. Musk had sent to the previously suspended users was clear: “Welcome back, welcome home.”
On Elon Musk’s Twitter
Twitter and Mr Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
“Finally got this account back after being banned for being a #Republican, thanks @elonmusk,” one user tweeted. Just 10 minutes later, the same person wrote, “Joe Biden is an illegitimate president and the 2020 election has been stolen.”
Here’s some of what these users have been saying since returning to Twitter.
Misinformation about Covid-19 and doubts about vaccines
During the pandemic, Twitter introduced a policy that banned misinformation about the virus and was suspended 11,000 bills, including many prominent users, after pushing untruths. But last month, after Musk took control of the company, Twitter said it did no longer enforce that policy.
Several recovered users who were banned after the Covid-19 policy went into effect started posting about the virus and vaccines again. Some expressed doubts about the effectiveness of vaccines or suggested, without evidence, that vaccines kill people.
Several reports mentioned “Suddenly Died,” a misleading documentary released this year claiming that people were dying from the vaccine. Others shared their own unsupported anecdotes.
“If you’ve seen ‘Died Suddenly,’ here’s more corroborating evidence,” one user tweeted, adding a link to a website titled ‘Covid Jab Side Effects’. Before being banned in January 2021, the user had posted several times about Covid-19, including reports that the virus was not dangerous.
Election fraud
Twitter cracked down on conspiracy theories about voter fraud after the 2020 election, suspending thousands of accounts that shared false and misleading ideas about the election results. Hundreds of users have since returned to Twitter and pushed those ideas again.
Many recovered users focused on exciting races during the midterm elections, including the race for governor in Arizona and the race for Senate in Pennsylvania. Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, lost her race but refused to concede due to problems with the voting process and allegations of fraud. Many recovered users echoed her ideas.
Those tweets reused falsehoods and conspiracy theories from the 2020 election, including that voting machines were rigged to influence the outcome.
“Voters, not voting machines, used to decide Arizona elections,” one recovered user tweeted. “That’s no longer the case.”
QAnon
QAnon, the online conspiracy theory, seemed to reach its peak on January 6, 2021, when hundreds of Mr. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. Twitter subsequently suspended more than 70,000 accounts associated with the group. But many of the movement’s core ideas continue to play an important role in the far-right imagination.
On Twitter, recovered users have returned to familiar themes in QAnon lore, raising questions about prominent Democrats and their association with Jeffrey Epstein, a former financier accused of child trafficking and a central figure in QAnon conspiracies.
They have alleged without evidence that Democrats and Hollywood personalities engage in widespread sex trafficking and pedophilia. And they also have repeated claims that liberals “groom” children through cross-dressing and sex education.
“Just recovered today from 2 years of permanent suspension,” wrote a recovered user with “QAnon” in his username. “I think I owe that to the new owner, thanks Elon Musk.”
