Musk: People banned from Twitter won't be restored for weeks

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk said Wednesday that Twitter will not allow anyone who has been kicked off the site to return until it sets up procedures on how to do that, a process that will take at least a few weeks.

That would mean people banned from the site for violating Twitter's rules for harassment, violence, or election and COVID-related misinformation will not be able to return before next Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections.

The pledge came after Musk, who took control of the social-media site last week after buying it for $44 billion, said in a tweet that he had met with a handful of civil-society leaders “about how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies."

Those attending the meeting Tuesday asked Musk not to restore the banned users ahead of the midterms, said Jessica González, an attorney and co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press who attended the meeting.

The attendees — including leaders from the NAACP, Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change — also requested Twitter have a transparent process on how it plans to restore accounts. Musk has publicly said that he would let former President Donald Trump back on the site, though Trump — who routinely touts his own platform Truth Social — has given no indication as to whether he will return.

González said the attendees also requested Twitter enforce election-integrity measures that are already in place, and encouraged him to hear from a diverse array of people — particularly racial minorities and those who’ve been targeted by hate and harassment campaigns.

“He agreed to all of those things in our meeting, but actions speak louder than words,” González said. “I’ve had a lot of meetings with tech CEOs. And I’ve been made a lot of empty promises. And with...