Musk rehabilitates Trump's Twitter account after a poll but he refuses to return

Billionaire Elon Musk, in a file image. / Reuters

The former US president and presidential candidate says he sees “no reason” to return to the social network despite the fact that in a survey close to eight million users spoke in favor of removing the veto.

Sunday, November 20, 2022, 22:23

Elon Musk, the new head of Twitter, restored the account of former US President Donald Trump, banned from the social network after the assault on the Capitol in January 2021, late on Saturday morning in Spain. has pronounced. Trump will be reinstated,” the businessman tweeted on his account following the results of a survey released the day before.

More than 15 million users responded and 51.8% spoke in favor of ‘yes’ to the return of the Republican politician. A few minutes after his message, Trump’s account – whose last tweet dates from January 8, 2021 – was visible again. The number of followers, which seems to have started from scratch, was already around 86.3 million last night.

In launching the survey, Musk had hinted that the result could influence the decision on whether or not the former president would return to the social network. Twitter had suspended it indefinitely on January 8, 2021 due to the “risk of further incitement to violence.”

Trump, for his part, said he welcomed Musk’s poll and declared himself a fan, but declined to return. “He put up a poll and it was very overwhelming…but I have something called Truth Social.” On whether he would return to Twitter, he said: “I’m not considering it because I don’t see any reason for it.”

Freedom of expression

Musk had launched the Trump inquiry just hours after reinstating other suspended user accounts in the name of free speech. Meanwhile, many critics fear that the content is no longer sufficiently moderated on the social network.

This is not the first time Musk has asked his followers for their opinion. For example, he asked them in late 2021 whether he should sell Tesla stock and, more recently, whether Twitter advertisers should “support free speech” or “political correctness.”