San Francisco (AP): New Twitter owner Elon Musk has said he is granting "amnesty" for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation.

The billionaire's announcement came on Thursday after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline to vote on reinstatements for accounts that have not "broken the law or engaged in egregious spam". The yes vote was 72 per cent.

"The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk tweeted using a Latin phrase meaning "the voice of the people, the voice of God".

Musk used the same Latin phrase after posting a similar poll last last weekend before reinstating the account of former President Donald Trump, which Twitter had banned for encouraging the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Trump has said he won't return to Twitter but has not deleted his account.

Such online polls are anything but scientific and can easily be influenced by bots.

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Kolkata (PTI): BJP president Nitin Nabin on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the TMC government in West Bengal, accusing it of protecting illegal infiltrators, targeting Hindus and playing “dirty politics” to derail the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.

Nabin alleged that there was a deliberate attempt by the TMC to turn West Bengal into Bangladesh and claimed that while the Election Commission was determined to weed out infiltrators and fake voters, the ruling party was committed to protecting them.

“The TMC government wants West Bengal to merge with Bangladesh. Under its rule, the demography of the state is being changed, posing a threat to national security,” he said.

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Dismissing the TMC’s allegation that the EC was harassing common people through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the BJP president said it was the state administration that was intimidating citizens to malign the poll panel.

“It is not the Election Commission that is harassing people. It is the TMC government’s SDOs and BDOs who are doing it to create fear and discredit the EC,” he alleged.

Nabin also accused the TMC government of being a protector of infiltrators and claimed that lawlessness had replaced governance in the state.

“Factories have been shut, and enterprises of corruption and lawlessness have been opened. Women are not safe under the TMC rule, and Hindus are being tortured,” he alleged.

Asserting that the BJP was fighting against what he described as the misrule of the TMC in West Bengal, Nabin said the party would continue efforts to curb infiltration, electoral manipulation and administrative intimidation in the state.