Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account on Saturday, reversing a ban that has kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol in an election victory.
Musk announced he would reinstate Trump’s account Saturday night after conducting a poll asking Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether Trump’s account should be reinstated. He won the “yes” with 51.8 percent.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.”
Shortly after, Trump’s account, which was previously listed as suspended, reappeared on the platform complete with his previous tweets, more than 59,000 of them. However, his followers were gone, at least initially.
It’s unclear if Trump would actually return to Twitter. An irrepressible tweeter before he was banned, Trump has said in the past that he would not rejoin Twitter even if his account were reinstated. He has been relying on his own much smaller social networking site, Truth Social, which he launched after being blocked from Twitter.
Also on Saturday, during a video address to a meeting of a Republican Jewish group in Las Vegas, Trump said he was aware of Musk’s poll but saw “a lot of problems on Twitter,” according to Bloomberg.
“I heard we’re getting a big vote to get back on Twitter. I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump said, quoted by Bloomberg. “I may make it, I may not make it,” he added, apparently referring to Twitter’s recent internal upheavals.
Turbulence on Twitter
The prospect of restoring Trump’s presence on the platform followed Musk’s purchase of Twitter last month, an acquisition that has fueled widespread concern that the billionaire owner will allow purveyors of lies and misinformation to flourish on the site. . Musk has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter has become too restrictive when it comes to free speech.
Their efforts to redevelop the site have been quick and chaotic. Musk has laid off many of the company’s 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors who are responsible for content moderation and other crucial responsibilities. His demand that the remaining employees commit to “extremely hard” work prompted a wave of resignations, including hundreds of software engineers.
Users reported seeing an increase in spam and scams in their feeds and in their direct messages, among other technical issues, in the wake of mass layoffs and worker exodus. Some programmers who were fired or resigned this week warned that Twitter could soon fall so far apart that it could collapse.
About 1,200 Twitter employees have quit after CEO Elon Musk issued an ultimatum that required what he called a ‘hardcore’ work culture.
Musk’s online poll, which ran for 24 hours before ending Saturday night, ended with 51.8 percent of more than 15 million votes in favor of restoring Trump’s Twitter account. It comes four days after Trump announced his 2024 run for president.
Trump lost his access to Twitter two days after his supporters stormed the US Capitol, shortly after the former president urged them to “fight like crazy.” Twitter removed his account after Trump wrote a pair of tweets that the company said cast further doubt on the legitimacy of the presidential election and raised risks to Biden’s inauguration.
After the January 6 attack, Trump was also banned from Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta Platforms, and Snapchat. He also suspended his ability to post videos to his YouTube channel. Facebook is set to reconsider the suspension of Trump’s account in January.
Throughout his tenure as president, Trump’s use of social media posed a significant challenge to major social media platforms seeking to balance the public’s interest in hearing from public officials with concerns about misinformation, intolerance, harassment and incitement to violence.
Last account to reset
But in a speech at a conference call in May, Musk claimed that Trump’s Twitter ban was a “morally bad decision” and “absolutely foolish.”
Earlier this month, Musk, who completed the US $44 billion acquisition of Twitter at the end of October, stated that the company would not allow anyone who had been banned from the site to return until Twitter had established procedures regarding how to do it, including the formation of a “content moderation board”.
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 had been reinstated. He added that a decision on Trump had not yet been made. He also replied “no” when someone on Twitter asked him to reinstate the account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
In a tweet Friday, the Tesla CEO described the company’s new content policy as “free speech, but not freedom of scope.”
He explained that a tweet deemed “negative” or containing “hate” would be allowed on the site, but would only be visible to users who specifically searched for it. Such tweets would also be “demonetized, so there’s no ads or other revenue for Twitter,” Musk said.
