Popular satirical website The Babylon Bee was locked out of their Twitter account earlier this year, after sharing its article congratulating US Health and Human Services assistant secretary Dr. Rachel Levine on being awarded its "Man of the Year" award for 2022; Levine identifies as a 'woman.'
Twitter deemed the article "hateful conduct," and demanded that the satirical website delete the tweet before it could regain access to its account.
The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, a free speech advocate, refused to delete the tweet. "We're standing firm on saying that we're not going to bend the knee and delete the tweet," he said in April.
Dillon also revealed that he got a call from Elon Musk asking him about the ban. This led many to think that Twitter's action against The Babylon Bee partly influenced the SpaceX CEO's bid that month, to buy the social media platform.
"Kathie Griffin, Jorden Peterson & Babylon Bee have been reinstated" Musk annouced Friday, on Twitter, almost eight months after the satirical website was locked out. "Trump decision has not yet been made."
While left-wing comedian Kathy Griffin was banned for impersonation violation, popular Canadian professor and Daily Wire host Jordan Peterson was locked out of his account for reasons similar to that given for locking out The Babylon Bee. Former President Donald Trump was banned from the platform early last year.
"We're back. Let that sink in," The Babylon Bee tweeted Friday, confirming their account has been unlocked.
Popular former kichkboxing champion and internet personality Andrew Tate was also apparently unbanned by Twitter.
Within minutes of The Bee's return, Musk announced a change in policy change. "New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach," he tweeted. "Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet."
Following his announcements a Twitter user asked Musk to unban popular Infowars founder Alex Jones, to which he replied simply "no." It's not clear if this means the legendary Alex Jones Show host will never be let back on the social media platform.
Musk's refusal to unban Alex Jones triggered criticisms from free speech advocates who say it's hypocrtical of the new Twitter chief who once claimed he's a "free speech absolutist."
Responding to Musk's tweet about him, Alex Jones in video posted Friday on Infowars, acknowledged that the new Twitter owner is under tremendous pressure from President Joe Biden administration, far-left groups like the ADL and left-wing politicians in US and Europe, to not ease censorship on the social media platform.