Elon Musk Would Reverse Twitter’s Ban on Trump

 

 

According to Axios, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an interview with the Financial Times that Twitter’s ban on former US President Donald Trump was “foolish in the extreme,” as well as “morally wrong and flat out stupid.” He also stated that he will “reverse” the permanent ban.

 

“Obviously, I don’t own Twitter yet, so this is not a thing that will definitely happen,” Musk said, acknowledging this is potentially hypothetical but also a thing we could in fact see.

 

“I talked to Jack Dorsey about this, and he and I are of the same mind that permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots or spam, scam accounts, where there’s just no legitimacy to the account at all,” the 50-year-old said. “I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

 

Musk then went on to talk about how Trump started his own social media network, Truth Social, in February, and how “a large part of the right” had joined him. According to Musk, having a “one forum where everyone could debate” may “end up being, frankly, worse.”

 

“We should not have perma-bans,” he said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that somebody gets to say whatever they want to say. If they say something that is illegal or otherwise destructive to the world, then there should be perhaps a time out, a temporary suspension, or that particular tweet should be made invisible or have very limited traction. But I think perma-bans just fundamentally undermine trust and Twitter as a town square where everyone can voice their opinion. I think it was a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme”

 

Trump was banned from Twitter after tweets that were accused of instigating violence in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, as history will soon record. At the time, Twitter highlighted that his remarks should be seen in the context of “broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences.”