Elon Musk has reinstated Donald Trump’s account on Twitter.
The move reverses a ban that kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021 as the US Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
Musk made the announcement in the early hours of Sunday morning after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether Trump’s account should be restored.
The “yes” vote won, with 51.8 per cent.
Light touch regulation did not work with banks and won’t work for video sharing platforms like TikTok
High Court gives X six weeks to file defence to George Galloway’s defamation claim
Regulating social media is an impossible job but someone has got to at least try
New online safety code to protect children on social platforms including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok
“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”.
It is not clear whether Trump would actually return to Twitter.
An irrepressible tweeter before he was banned, the former president has said in the past that he would not rejoin the social media platform even if his account was reinstated.
Shortly after Musk’s announcement on Twitter, the former president’s account reappeared on the social media platform.
While it still had more than 1.2 million followers, it was not following any other users.
Trump’s last tweet was posted on January 9th, 2021, reading: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the inauguration on January 20th.”
All of his former tweets also reappeared when the account was reinstated – more than 59,000 of them.
Earlier in the evening while addressing 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,” the former president was quoted as saying.
“It may make it, it may not make it,” he added, apparently referring to Twitter’s recent internal upheavals. – PA
