Musk puts Trump back on Twitter after online poll

Los Angeles –

Elon Musk on Saturday lifted a ban that has kept the former president off social media sites since pro-Trump mobs attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and removed Donald Trump’s Twitter account. said to revive. Election victory for Joe Biden.

Musk made the announcement late at night after holding a poll asking Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether Trump’s account should be reinstated.

“People have spoken. Trump is back. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning “voice of the people, voice of God.”

It’s not clear if Trump will actually return to Twitter. Trump, who tweeted irrepressibly before being banned, has said in the past that he would not rejoin Twitter even if his account was revived. He has relied on Truth Social, a much smaller social media site he launched after being blocked from Twitter.

According to Bloomberg, Trump said in a video address at the Republican Jewish Group Conference in Las Vegas on Saturday that he was aware of Musk’s polls, but that “Twitter has a lot of problems.” Stated.

“I hear they’re getting big votes to reopen Twitter,” Trump said, according to a Bloomberg report. “It might work, it might not work,” he added, seemingly referring to Twitter’s recent internal turmoil.

Musk bought Twitter last month and could restore Trump’s presence on the site. The acquisition sparked widespread concern that billionaire owners would allow providers of lies and disinformation to thrive on the site. Musk has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter limits free speech too much.

Efforts to reshape this millionaire’s site are swift and chaotic. Musk laid off many of the company’s 7,500 full-time workers and countless contractors with content moderation and other important responsibilities. His request to commit has sparked a wave of resignations, including hundreds of software engineers.

Users are reporting an increase in spam and fraud in their feeds and direct messages in the aftermath of mass layoffs and worker exodus. Some programmers who were fired or resigned this week warned that Twitter could soon fray and actually crash.

Musk’s online poll ran for 24 hours before closing Saturday night, with 52% of the more than 15 million votes cast in favor of restoring Trump’s Twitter account. It’s been four days since Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

Trump lost access to Twitter two days after his supporters stormed the Capitol, shortly after the former president encouraged them to “fight like hell”. It deleted his account after writing two tweets that the company said raised further questions about the legitimacy of the election and increased the risk of a Biden presidency.

After the Jan. 6 attacks, Trump was kicked out of Meta Platforms-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat. His ability to post videos on his YouTube channel has also been suspended. Facebook plans to reconsider Trump’s account suspension in January.

During his tenure as president, Trump’s use of social media was dominated by major social media outlets that sought to balance public interest in hearing from public officials with concerns about misinformation, prejudice, harassment and incitement to violence. It posed a big challenge for media platforms.

But Musk, in a speech at a car conference in May, argued that Twitter’s banning of Trump was a “bad moral decision” and “extremely ridiculous.”

Musk, who completed his US$44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, declared earlier this month that Twitter would not bring back anyone kicked from its site until Twitter established procedures on how to do so. “Content Moderation Council”.

On Friday, Musk tweeted that the suspended Twitter accounts of comedian Kathy Griffin, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, and conservative Christian news satire website Babylon Bee have been revived. He added that no decision has yet been made regarding Trump. He also said “no” when someone asked him on Twitter to reactivate the account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

In a tweet on Friday, Tesla’s CEO described the company’s new content policy as “free speech, not free reach.”

He explained that tweets deemed “negative” or containing “hate” would be allowed on the site, but would only be visible to users who specifically searched for it. There will be no advertising or other revenue on Twitter as it will be disabled,” Musk said.