Elon Musk Says Twitter Will End Ban On Donald Trump

Elon Musk has confirmed he’s been speculating since reaching a deal to save Twitter: he’ll let Donald Trump return to the platform.

“I think it was a morally bad decision, it was obvious and extremely stupid,” Musk said on Tuesday. financial times‘Next Conference Car.

Musk warned that the proposed Twitter acquisition, in which he will take over the company in private ownership, is not yet a “complete deal” and will be completed in “at best” within two to three months.

But he said he spoke to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and they agreed that Twitter’s permanent suspension should protect against bots or spam accounts.

“Donald Trump’s ban was not correct,” Musk said. “I think it was a mistake. It alienated much of the country.”

He says that instead of Trump’s lack of voice, a permanent suspension will only raise his voice to the right.

Trump said he won’t be returning to Twitter, but will maintain a presence on his own social media platform, Truth Social. However, given the much broader social media platform, and especially if he decides to run again in the 2024 presidential election, there is great doubt that he will stay that way.

Following the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill, Trump was banned from Twitter forever. The company said this was due to “the risk of further inciting violence”, as they cited numerous cases where Trump violated the terms of service.

Last month, Twitter’s board accepted Musk’s offer to buy the company for about $44 billion. Musk criticized the company’s very restrictive content moderation decisions, leading to the assumption that Trump restored his account and other figures in between.

At the Financial Times event, Musk cited the possibility of temporarily suspending accounts or reducing their access if they say something illegal is “disaster for the world.” But he said the solution must not be permanent bans that “could undermine trust in Twitter as an account where basically everyone can express their opinion”.

Musk’s comments show a more enthusiastic stance on what’s posted on Twitter, but he said the platform will continue to make moderate content decisions, including sanctions against users.

“If there are false and bad tweets, they should be removed or made invisible, and a temporary suspension is recommended, but not a permanent ban,” Musk said.

At a daily briefing on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked about Musk’s comments.

“It is the decision of a private company to decide who and who is not allowed to be on their platform. What I will say generally is that while ensuring that freedom of expression is protected throughout the country, it is also our effort not to use these platforms as forums for disinformation. We saw the story of this not only on Twitter, but also on Facebook. “The President believes there is more to be done to reform Chapter 230 and there is a lot of bipartisan interest in that, so this could be a reminder of the need to do that.”

Section 230 is part of the 1996 Act that exempts Internet companies from liability for the immunity of third-party content posted on their platforms, including compliance with a content moderation decision.