Business News
Elon Musk May Reinstate Trump’s Twitter Account
Elon Musk announced in May that he would reinstate former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account if his Twitter deal goes through.
Now Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has completed his $44 billion (£38.1 billion) takeover of Twitter, according to US media and an investor in the company.
You will recall Twitter banned Trump after his supporters stormed the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. According to the social network, Trump violated its rules against inciting violence and was removed “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” It was the first major platform to ban the then-president, with Facebook and YouTube quickly following suit.
More so, the Tesla CEO commented at the Financial Times Future of the Car conference that banning Donald Trump’s Twitter account was wrong:
“I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Musk added that Trump’s ban was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid.”
READ ALSO:
Trump’s account was permanently banned after the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, with Twitter saying his continued presence on the platform was a “risk of further incitement of violence.”
Musk added that permanent bans should be “extremely rare” and reserved for “bots, or spam/scam accounts.”
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” he said in a recent statement.
Trump has said he does not intend to rejoin Twitter and will focus mostly on the social network he launched called Truth Social.
Elon Musk owns Twitter. Now what?
Musk’s most consistent message about why he wants to buy Twitter is that he wants it to be a free-flowing digital town square of ideas. He has stated that anyone can say whatever they want on the platform as long as it is legal.
“I think it’s essential to have free speech and to be able to communicate freely,” Musk said at a Twitter employee meeting in June, according to a recording obtained by Vox.
But it’s unclear how Musk intends to carry out his free speech promise, or what he even means by it.