The new Twitter owner announced that his team is developing a process for reinstating suspended accounts
When tech mogul Elon Musk bought Twitter, one of the first questions people asked was whether that meant figures like former President Donald Trump, who were permanently suspended from the platform, would be allowed to return.
Trump was kicked off Twitter after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, when the platform determined that his tweets violated its Glorification of Violence Policy and risked “further incitement of violence.”
Earlier this year, Musk called Trump’s permanent banning a “mistake,” arguing that it “alienated the country and did not result in Donald Trump having a voice.” (Trump went on to found Truth Social, his own version of Twitter that almost exclusively attracts far-right users.)
“I think [his suspension] was a morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme,” Musk said at the time. He has suggested that lifetime bans will no longer be a go-to move for Twitter under his control.
With Musk officially at the helm of Trump’s onetime favorite social media platform, users have wondered when the former president’s seemingly inevitable reinstatement will happen. On Monday, the Tesla founder tweeted, “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!”
Now, he’s offering more insight into the reinstatement process. Without mentioning Trump by name, he tweeted, “Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks.”
Musk, whose vision to loosen content moderation practices on the platform has been perceived as dismissive to dangerous hate speech, added, “Twitter’s content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence.”
Trump, meanwhile, has said that even if he is allowed back on Twitter, he will not shut down Truth Social, which was created in response to his suspension. “I am staying on Truth. I like it better, I like the way it works,” he told Fox News Digital last week. “I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth.”
He declined to tell Fox News Digital if he will ever use Twitter again, but said, “I don’t think Twitter can be successful without me.”
[via]
