Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated despite a permanent ban in January 2021. Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, asked on Friday if Trump should be reinstated. Over 15 million votes supported Trump’s return to Twitter.
Before becoming private in July 2022, Twitter had 237.8 million paying users. Trump’s account was resurrected even though just a small percentage of Twitter users participated in Musk’s poll.
People wanted this. Trump will return. Musk tweeted “voice of the people, the voice of God”
The former president says he’ll run again in 2024.
Reinstate former President Trump
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022
Trump’s restriction came days after the January 6 rioting on the U.S. Capitol, when insurrectionists tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Twitter suspended @realDonaldTrump’s account due to the potential of further inciting violence after reviewing recent tweets and their context.
Elon Musk has already overturned suspensions on two high-profile accounts de-platformed for misgendering trans people: The Babylon Bee and Jordan Peterson. He reversed Kathy Griffin’s Twitter ban for impersonating Musk.
Musk initially supported lifting the restriction on the former president when announcing his Twitter candidacy. Now that he owns the corporation, Musk tweets policy updates.
Musk tweeted yesterday that Twitter’s new policy allows freedom of expression but not reach. Negative/hate tweets will be deboosted and demonetized, reducing Twitter’s earnings.
Musk has changed his mind on new features before, so it’s hard to accept his word on how Twitter will manage content moderation. Musk is setting a precedent for his leadership at Twitter by letting a day-long poll drive content moderation decisions.
Uncertain if Obama will return to Twitter. Trump founded Truth Social after being banned from Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Trump using Truth Social is a selling factor.
great optimism, but don’t worry, we’re not leaving. Truth Social is unique!” This evening, the former president made a post on Truth Social, mentioning Musk’s Twitter poll.
Truth Social made its iOS debut in February with a shaky launch that included uncredited Mastodon source code. The app failed to get authorized on Google Play for several months after Google allegedly discovered multiple posts that violated its Play Store content restrictions. Internally, Trump Media and Technology Group, Truth Social’s parent firm, is struggling to execute a proposed merger in order to go public via SPAC.
According to SensorTower data, around 3.7 million users have downloaded the Truth Social app as of September.
