Twitter Lifts Ban on Donald Trump After Elon Musk’s Poll – Donald Trump’s Twitter account seemed to be back online after a slight majority of votes in a Twitter poll organized by Elon Musk was cast in favor of reinstating the former US president, who had been banned from the social media service following the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021. Slightly more than 15 million votes were recorded, with 51.8% of respondents favoring reinstatement. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted.
During the poll, Musk recognized that the vote totals were influenced by automated “bots”, which are not people, and suggested there was a need to “clean up” Twitter polls from being influenced by “bot and trolls armies.” Earlier in the day, Trump appeared reluctant to return to Twitter. The former president stated via video, in response to a question from a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, “I don’t see any reason for it.” He stated that he will continue to use Truth Social, the app created by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) firm.
Twitter made the remarkable decision to ban Trump after the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, citing the likelihood that his posts would “highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the US Capitol.” Trump launched his effort to retake the White House in 2024 on Tuesday and hailed Musk, stating that he has always admired him. But Trump also stated that Twitter was plagued by bots and false accounts and that its problems were “incredible.” Even when Musk was still completing his acquisition of Twitter, his self-proclaimed status as a “free speech absolutist” increased the likelihood that he would reinstate permanently suspended Twitter accounts.
Experts on hate speech and disinformation have been preparing for the return of Trump, who gained more than 88 million followers during his time on Twitter. On Sunday, it appeared that the account’s number of followers fluctuated above and below the one million level. Musk stated in May that he intended to overturn the ban on Trump, and many of Twitter’s advertisers closely monitored – and feared – the date of Trump’s comeback. Musk attempted to reassure users and advertisers that a content monitoring council would carefully review such a decision.
There would be no account reinstatements prior to the council’s convening, which would be comprised of individuals with “widely diverse viewpoints.” Additionally, he stated that Twitter would not reinstate banned users until there was a “clear process” for doing so. Musk also reinstated comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been banned for altering her profile name to “Elon Musk” without declaring it was a parody account, thereby violating his new rule against impersonation. There are no updated details regarding the moderation council or reinstatement procedure.
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