Elon Musk has recounted the accounts of several journalists he banned for claiming to have “doxxed” him

Elon Musk takes, Elon Musk gives.

Late Friday night, the mercurial billionaire announced unilaterally that he was unblocking journalists whose accounts were suspended a day earlier — which Musk claims he “got into” by posting links to an account tracking his private jet. Until this week, the CEO of Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX was fine with the aircraft tracker remaining on the social network, which he got for $44 billion.

“People have spoken,” Musk said chirp Shortly after midnight ET. Accounts that extracted my location will now be suspended. Musk was referring to a poll he posted about when the accounts he banned would be reinstated. After nearly 3.7 million votes, 59% of the vote supported lifting the ban “now” while the rest voted for “in 7 days”. Likewise, Musk decided to reinstate Donald Trump last month based on a poll, after claiming he was setting up a board with “diverse views” to comment on such questions.

Journalists blocked by Musk have questioned his assertion that they “fixed” him. To some observers, it appeared that the tech giant — as Twitter’s sole decision-maker — was trying to silence critics of his reign at the company.

Tony Webster, the journalist and photographer whose account was among those arrested on Dec. 16, said on Twitter Friday night: “To be clear, there was no ‘deception’ – even if a hasty oligarch, irresponsible to no one, said it.” He quoted his last tweet before his suspension, which said, “If you are not willing to admit that Elon Musk lied to you about his free speech goals, then you are simply in denial at this point.”

As of Friday night, the accounts restored include those of freelance journalist Aaron Ropar (@atrupar), Ryan Mac of the New York Times (@RMac18), The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell (@drewharwell), CNN’s Donnie O’Sullivan (@donie) and Matt Binder. From Mashable (@MattBinder), The Intercept’s Micah Lee (@micahflee), and Tony Webster (@webster).

Twitter also on Friday brought back the account of Mastodon (@joinmastodon), which tweeted a link to ElonJet’s account on its own service. Political commentator Keith Olbermann’s account is still pending at the time of publication.

Musk’s move — which he claims is “absolute freedom of speech” — to suspend the accounts of prominent journalists came after he blocked the ElonJet account and other aircraft tracking software on Wednesday, citing the need to ensure his family’s safety. Also on Wednesday, Twitter issued an entirely new rule that prohibits accounts from sharing the real-time location of individuals, even if the data information is publicly available. Several of the suspended journalists’ accounts tweeted about the drone and linked to its new account on rival social network Mastodon.

Last month, Musk said Twitter would grant an “amnesty” to all suspended accounts and reinstate them (“provided they don’t break the law or engage in egregious spam”). This included neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, founder of the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, who was banned by Twitter in 2013.

Robar, recalculated, chirpI would like to thank everyone for all the support and kind words over the past day and some change. I was so confused about getting suspended at first but soon realized it was going to be okay because I’m lucky to have such a great online community. Seriously, I appreciate it so much. cheers.”

Robar previously told CNN that he did not post anything on Twitter about ElonJet. He has criticized Musk in his tweets and reports. For example, on Dec. 15, Robar tweeted, “Can’t wait for Twitter to ban Elon Musk for violating a policy the company announced hours ago,” tweeting a video Musk posted of a masked person in a car. to which she revealed her license plate and asked, “Anyone who recognizes this person or vehicle?” Earlier, Musk said in a tweet that the car his two-year-old son was riding in on Tuesday night in Los Angeles was “followed by [a] A crazy stalker (thinks it was me), who later stopped the car from moving and climbed onto the hood of the car.”

Since closing the deal on Twitter less than two months ago, Musk has shaken up the company quite a bit. In addition to firing 50% of Twitter’s employees, he moved to try to generate revenue from Twitter Blue by making the paid service the only way to get a “verified” blue tick going forward.