Elon Musk reinstates Trump's Twitter account 22 months after it was suspended
Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump's account on Twitter on Saturday, reversing a ban that has kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden's election victory.
Musk made the announcement in the evening after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click "yes" or "no" on whether Trump's account should be reinstated. The "yes" vote won, with 51.2%.
"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning "the voice of the people, the voice of God."
Shortly afterward Trump's account, which had earlier appeared as suspended, reappeared on the platform complete with his former tweets, more than 59,000 of them. However his followers were gone, at least initially.
It was not clear whether Trump would actually return to Twitter, and although his account was restored, he had not tweeted as of 8:30 p.m. Eastern time Saturday.
Musk's online survey came four days after Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2024.
An irrepressible tweeter before he was banned, Trump has said in the past that he would not rejoin Twitter even if his account was reinstated. He has been relying on his own, much smaller social media site, Truth Social, which he launched after being blocked from Twitter.
And on Saturday, during a video speech to a Republican Jewish group meeting in Las Vegas, Trump said that he was aware of Musk's poll but that he saw "a lot of problems at Twitter," according to Bloomberg.
"I hear we're getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter. I don't see it because I don't see any reason for it," Trump said, Bloomberg reported. "It may make it, it may not make it," he added, apparently referring to Twitter's recent internal upheavals.
The prospect of restoring Trump's presence to the site follows Musk's purchase last month of Twitter - an acquisition that has fanned widespread concern that the billionaire owner will allow purveyors of lies and misinformation to flourish on the site. Musk has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter had become too restrictive of freewheeling speech.
The billionaire's efforts to reshape the site have been both swift and chaotic. Musk has fired many of the company's 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors who are responsible for content moderation and other crucial responsibilities. His demand that remaining employees pledge to "extremely hardcore" work triggered a wave of resignations, including hundreds of software engineers.
By Thursday night, the deadline Musk gave for workers to stay or go, hundreds had turned in their resignations, leaving the company in "disarray," the New York Times reported.
"It's extremely chaotic and the morale is extremely low," Melissa Ingle, a content moderator who was recently laid off, told CBS News' John Dickerson Friday.
Shortly after the deadline, a self-described activist digitally projected statements criticizing Musk onto the side of Twitter's San Francisco offices.
"Musk's hellscape," read one statement. "Launching to bankruptcy," said another.
Users have reported seeing increased spam and scams on their feeds and in their direct messages, among other glitches, in the aftermath of the mass layoffs and worker exodus. Some programmers who were fired or resigned this week warned that Twitter may soon fray so badly it could actually crash.
Trump lost his access to Twitter two days after his supporters stormed the Capitol, soon after the former president had exhorted them to "fight like hell." Twitter dropped his account after Trump wrote a pair of tweets that the company said cast further doubts on the legitimacy of the presidential election and raised risks for the Biden presidential inauguration.
After the Jan. 6 attack, Trump was also kicked off Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta Platforms, and Snapchat. His ability to post videos to his YouTube channel was also suspended. Facebook is set to reconsider Trump's account suspension in January.
Throughout his tenure as president, Trump's use of social media posed a significant challenge to major social media platforms that sought to balance the public's interest in hearing from public officials with worries about misinformation, bigotry, harassment and incitement of violence.
But in a speech at an auto conference in May, Musk asserted that Twitter's ban of Trump was a "morally bad decision" and "foolish in the extreme."
Earlier this month, Musk, who completed the $44 billion takeover of Twitter in late October, declared that the company wouldn't let anyone who had been kicked off the site return until Twitter had established procedures on how to do so, including forming a "content moderation council."
On Friday, Musk tweeted that the suspended Twitter accounts for the comedian Kathy Griffin, the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and the conservative Christian news satire website Babylon Bee had been reinstated. He added that a decision on Trump had not yet been made. He also responded "no" when someone on Twitter asked him to reinstate the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' account.
In a tweet Friday, the Tesla CEO described the company's new content policy as "freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach."
He explained that a tweet deemed to be "negative" or to include "hate" would be allowed on the site but would be visible only to users who specifically searched for it. Such tweets also would be "demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter," Musk said.
DC_Draino on Twitter wrote:
Here’s what I don’t get about DeSantis
He’s hugely popular in FL and widely seen by the MAGA base as the heir-apparent to Trump
He’s young, has $100+ million in the bank, and *just* got re-elected
His term ends 2027 & he’d have nearly 2 full years to run for POTUS in 2028
Why waste all that money, political capital, and goodwill to run and likely lose in 2024?
Trump is going to hit him so hard in the primaries that a solid 30%+ of MAGA will probably never support DeSantis again, especially since his polls have rocketed after these indictments
Pence made 1 giant mistake and crossed the base on J6 and now MAGA has crossed him off their list forever - why flirt with that danger?
The only way this makes sense is if Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and the Establishment machine want to use him as a pawn to weaken Trump
Please don’t fall for it Governor
You’re the POTUS in 2028 with the full MAGA machine supporting you
Keep crushing it as our Governor and help Trump win in 2024 - You’ll only *grow* your support that way!
1:10 PM · Apr 10, 2023 3M Views
businessinsider.com wrote:"With the news that Donald Trump has been indicted for the second time, our country finds itself in a position that weakens our democracy," said Hutchinson in a press release. "Donald Trump's actions — from his willful disregard for the Constitution to his disrespect for the rule of law — should not define our nation or the Republican Party. This is a sad day for our country. While Donald Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence, the ongoing criminal proceedings will be a major distraction. This reaffirms the need for Donald Trump to respect the office and end his campaign."
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Race/Topic Poll Results Spread 2024 New Hampshire Republican Presidential Primary CNN/UNH Trump 39, DeSantis 10, Christie 11, Ramaswamy 13, Scott 6, Haley 12, Burgum 1, Pence 2, Hurd 1, Hutchinson 0 Trump +26 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination Emerson Trump 59, DeSantis 12, Ramaswamy 7, Haley 3, Pence 5, Christie 5, Scott 2, Burgum 1, Hutchinson 1 Trump +47 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination Yahoo News Trump 59, DeSantis 13, Ramaswamy 5, Haley 5, Pence 3, Christie 1, Scott 1, Burgum 1, Hutchinson 0 Trump +46
Newsweek wrote:While campaigning, Bragg said: "I have investigated Trump and his children and held them accountable for their misconduct with the Trump Foundation. I also sued the Trump administration more than 100 times for the travel ban, the separation of children from their families at the border. So I know that work. I know how to follow the facts and hold people in power accountable."
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