Elon Musk says Trump's Truth Social app exists because Twitter 'censored free speech'

Isobel Asher Hamilton
Updated ·2 min read
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  • Elon Musk said Twitter censoring "free speech" resulted in Donald Trump creating his own social network.

  • Trump was banned from Twitter in January 2021 and launched Truth Social in February 2022.

  • Musk is set to buy Twitter for $44 billion and may relax its content moderation rules.

Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday saying Twitter censorship is the reason for the existence of President Trump's social media app, Truth Social.

"Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech," Musk tweeted. This came after Musk appeared to lament that Truth Social appeared above Twitter in the Apple's App Store downloads chart.

Twitter permanently suspended former president Trump in January 2021, following the storming of the US Capitol. Trump posted a video to Twitter in which he made a claim of election fraud and told the rioters, "Go home. We love you; you're very special."

"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," the company said at the time.

Trump's Facebook and YouTube accounts were also suspended — although not permanently.

Trump, who during his presidency accused Big Tech companies of bias against him, launched his own social media platform Truth Social in February. Trump has only made one post on Truth Social since its launch, and Insider's Rosie Bradbury described the app as a "conservative ghost town."

Musk is set to buy Twitter for $44 billion and has indicated he will relax the platform's rules on content moderation.

Twitter staff asked the company's CEO, Parag Agrawal, during an all-hands meeting whether Trump's ban will be reversed under Musk. Agrawal replied: "We don't know what direction the platform will go."

Trump said during a radio interview on April 14 that he "probably wouldn't have any interest" in returning to Twitter, saying it has "become very boring." Some of the former president's advisers expressed doubt over his stance in comments made to The Washington Post.

Read the original article on Business Insider