United States 45th President, Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been restored after a permanent ban from the platform in 2021 on accused of US Capitol riots. He is also banned from Meta’s Facebook and Instagram for 2 years. for spreading misinformation. His Facebook and Instagram accounts are expected to be restored in 2023.
The billionaire, Elon Musk on his way to making Twitter a pro-right-wing platform conducted a poll on Saturday, November 19, asking users whether to “Reinstate former President Trump” or not.
51.8% of around 15 million people (to be exact 15,085,458) voted for Yes while 48.2% voted No. With a narrow margin of 3.6%, the results went in the favor of restoring the former President’s account.
A few hours before the voting was concluded, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, his own Social media platform, that he will remain on his platform and will not switch to Twitter, citing its problems and saying his platform, Truth Social is special, which is as he is the head and makes the rules. He also requested his followers to vote “positively”.
He added, “To get back on Twitter, I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it. They have a lot of problems on Twitter, you see what’s going on. It may make it. It may not make it. But the problems are incredible. The engagements are negative. You have a lot of bots, you have a lot of fake accounts, which I think they should get on. But Truth Social is taking place for a lot of people, and I do not see I am going back to Twitter.” Trump said in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting.
Donald Trump also said that he likes Elon Musk.
In the reply to the poll, Elon Musk tweeted “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, which is a Latin phrase that translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God”. He also said, “Trump will be reinstated”. Soon after his tweet, Trump’s account was back on Twitter. Around 134 million have seen the pole, Elon Musk tweeted.
Trump’s account is restored after a 22 months ban. Donald Trump’s Twitter handle was permanently banned on January 6, 2021, he was the President of the United States at that time. Twitter in a dedicated blog post wrote “After a close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Donald Trump’s account @realDonaldTrump and his tweets have made visible to Twitter users on Sunday, November 20 after Elon Musk’s tweet.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk after acquiring the micro-blogging site for 44 billion dollars had reinstated several controversial accounts on the platform.
Elon said previously that the “New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.” He also added that “Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from the rest of the Internet.”
Jack Dorsey, who was the CEO of Twitter when Twitter banned Donald Trump but has since left, responded to Musk’s decision by saying he agreed that there should not be permanent bans. Banning the former president, he said, was a “business decision” and it “shouldn’t have been.”
The story has been edited by Mayank Vikash with input from the sources.
- Published on 20th November, 2022
- Written by Mayank Vikash
- Last updated Nov 20, 2022