(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Elon Musk changed Twitter’s official name to X, but the company seems to be reverting to its pre-Musk censorship and banning policies.
Twitter announced on Thursday a slew of impending changes to the social media platform, including the right to ban users for “commercial inviability”—in other words, the company will kick users off the platform if they post messages that upset advertisers.
The company also updated its privacy policies that will allow for the collection of biometric data and employment history, among other information.
The platform’s new privacy policy, which goes into effect Sept. 29, tells users that based “on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes.” It does not say what biometric information will be collected. Biometric data can refer to fingerprints, facial recognition and the like.
Along with the seemingly negative news, Musk said Thursday that his social network will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform.
However, Musk has a history of making proclamations about coming features and policies that have not always come to fruition. For example, he said cracking down on child porn would be his number-one priority, but Headline USA has reported on the fact that a porn-laden account from a convicted pedophile that is still online—even after this publication notified Twitter about it.
Musk did not say when the features would be available to users.
Twitter’s return to censorship and mass banning seems to have been spurred by the hiring of World Economic Forum crony Linda Yaccarino as new Twitter CEO.
The renewed censorship crackdown extended to Headline USA. When this reporter posted a photo in June of the charred corpse of tax protestor Gordon Kahl—who the FBI killed and conflagrated 40 years ago—Twitter had it removed.
Headline USA appealed the decision, explaining that the picture was posted for journalistic reasons—it’s the same photo used in this story—but Twitter maintained its decision.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
