Donald Trump Jr asks Elon Musk to set up social media network that his father isn’t banned from

Donald Trump Jr has urged Elon Musk to come up his own social media platform that can “blow Twitter away” and save “free speech in America” as he complained about his father’s permanent ban from the microblogging site following the US Capitol siege.

The eldest son of Donald Trump hit out at Twitter for what he called its “bias” and “one-way targeted” censorship, and invited the SpaceX chief to create a rival social networking site which gives a platform to “neural arbiters”, seemingly categorising his father as such.

“Wanted to come up with something to deal with nonsense on the censorship that’s going on right now and obviously, targeted one way,” said Mr Trump. “ Why doesn’t Elon Musk create a social media platform?

“This guy put manned people into space. He did so privately. He took on big government and did it better, cheaper, faster than they ever could. This is the guy to do it,” he said in the video clip shared on Instagram late on Tuesday.

Don Jr said he considered Mr Musk to be the right person to stand up against Twitter after the tech mogul took on “West Coast high tech” for turning into the “de facto arbiter of free speech”. His comments came after Amazon, Apple and Google blacklisted right-wing social media network Parler.

Twitter and Facebook also permanently banned the outgoing president on 8 January after his supporters marched on the US Capitol – at his request – before overrunning police and rioting inside the Capitol Building. The attack left five people dead, including a police officer.

“Someone like him has the brilliance to come up with something that blows Twitter away,” said Mr Trump about Mr Musk.

He suggested that the new platform can regulate against hate speech or violence but at the same time provide a platform to neutral commentators and not turn into a “leftist organisation” that de-platforms people with conservative thoughts.

“I am not looking for a conservative echo chamber, I want a platform to argue my ideas vs someone else’s and not just people in a place telling me what I want to hear,” Mr Trump said.

He showed dismay and shock at Russia’s opposition leaders speaking up in a recent debate over American tech giants and censorship, saying that “Russians are lecturing America on free speech today. That’s how scary it has become”.

“Elon why don’t you do that. Get out there and come up with a concept. I think you are literally the guy to save free speech in America,” he said, while concluding without evidence that the incoming Biden administration would “trample free speech” in the country to meet its political ends.

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