Elon Musk Says He Will Reverse Trump Twitter Ban
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Elon Musk announced Tuesday that he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former president Donald Trump.
Musk called the decision to ban Trump “foolish” and “morally wrong” in his Tuesday remarks. No timeline was given for the ban’s lifting, but it is expected to occur once Musk formally gains control of the company in November of this year.
“Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts . . . I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said at FT Live’s Future of the Car conference. “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.”
NEW: Twitter was “foolish in the extreme” in kicking Donald Trump off of the platform, and permanent bans should be extremely rare, said Elon Musk.
“I would reverse the permanent ban,” Musk said at the Financial Times Future of the Car summit https://t.co/HaXKl7VHdA pic.twitter.com/RDFMpJUSXO
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) May 10, 2022
The bombshell announcement comes weeks after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who is also the world’s richest man, closed a deal to purchase the company worth $44 billion. Twitter’s Board, after initial opposition, accepted his bid, which is being backed by Morgan Stanley and 19 other investors ranging from Oracle’s Larry Ellison to Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal of the Saudi royal family.
Trump was banned from Twitter on January 8, 2021, shortly after the storming of the U.S. Capitol for “incitement of violence,” with his subsequent Tweets being alleged as inflammatory. The decision to “permanently suspend” his account — a goal long sought by Democrats — was highly controversial and divided public opinion worldwide, with many expressing concerns about technology companies’ impact on the freedom of speech. Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel, who had clashed with Trump throughout his presidency, called the ban “problematic,” while French digital minister Bruno Le Maire claimed the act was a “threat to democracy.”
During his presidency, the account @realDonaldTrump was globally watched as Trump announced policy, made political statements, and fired cabinet members from his account. His Tweets were often controversial and laced with insults and derisive nicknames, about allies and rivals, which elicited both domestic and international reactions. It became the focal point of American politics during his four-year term.
Trump, however, has claimed that he will not return to Twitter even if the ban is lifted, and will instead use Truth Social, a new platform he created in response to the Twitter ban. The platform, led by CEO and former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, was launched in February of this year and has faced problems attracting users.
