Elon Musk says no decision yet to revive Donald Trump’s Twitter account – National

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said Friday that no decision had yet been made on whether to reactivate Donald Trump’s suspended account.

Faced with backlash from staff and criticism from users as he considers a review of the service and its free speech policies, Musk said Canadian academic Jordan Peterson, a right-wing satirical news site A Babylon Bee, comedian Kathy’s account has been revived on Griffin.

“Trump’s decision has not yet been made,” he added.

Musk has previously said that no decision will be made to revive banned accounts until the Content Moderation Council considers the matter.

Peterson and Babylon Bee had their accounts suspended earlier this year before Musk signed a deal to buy Twitter in October. A certain Rachel Levine Dr.

Griffin was suspended shortly after Musk took over for mocking him for impersonating a billionaire.

Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter following an attack on the US Capitol by hundreds of his supporters on January 6, 2021. The former president had used his platform in the days leading up to the riots to spread false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. This included widespread voter fraud allegations.

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According to a video released by Congress, a tweet sent by Trump as riots unfolded accusing Vice President Mike Pence of lacking “courage” to overturn the election, sending the mob into a frenzy and “hanging out”. Prompted to chant “Mike Pence”. Commission investigating the attack.

At the time of suspension, Trump’s account had more than 88 million followers.

Since Musk first made an offer to buy Twitter this spring, it has become possible that Trump will return to the platform. At a Financial Times conference in May, Musk called Trump’s ban “morally wrong and completely ridiculous” and said the move would only amplify Trump’s supporters.

Trump has said he will not return to Twitter even if his account is revived, opting to remain solely on his own platform, Truth Social.

But a return to Twitter could also be seen as necessary after Trump kicked off the 2024 presidential election on Tuesday. did not answer the question.

Trump was also banned from parent company Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat and YouTube, following the Capitol attack.

Facebook has no plans to reinstate Trump’s account, the company confirmed Wednesday. But the suspension will be reviewed by a quasi-independent oversight board in January, two years after he was first imposed.

YouTube spokeswoman Ivy Choi said Wednesday that the company has no plans to lift the suspension.

Musk’s comments about the resurrection of President Trump and three other accounts came as he announced a new content moderation policy that would allow “freedom of speech” but not “freedom of reach.” Thing.

Under this policy, “negative/hate tweets” are “boosted and disabled from monetization” but remain on the platform. Only individual tweets are affected, not accounts, he added later. rice field.

Twitter has already “down-ranked” offending tweets and in some cases requested their removal. The latter tactic was applied to Peterson for a tweet about Paige, but academics doubled down and said he would “better die” than delete the tweet, leading to his suspension.

— with files from The Associated Press

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