Elon Musk Calls Donald Trump’s Twitter Ban ‘Big Mistake’, Criticizes Violence
The ban on Twitter by then-President Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters was a “big mistake” that had to be corrected, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday, although he also said that inciting violence will lead to violence. keep getting banned from Twitter.
“I live for Trump and not for the tweet. The important thing is that Twitter has corrected the big mistake in blocking his account, despite not breaking the law or the terms of service,” Musk said in a tweet. “Criticizing a sitting president lowers public trust on Twitter for half of America.”
Last week, Musk announced the reopening of Trump’s account after a small majority voted in a Twitter poll in favor of Trump’s reinstatement, who, however, said he was not interested in returning to Twitter. He added that he will stick to his social media site Truth Social, an app created by the Trump Media & Technology Group.
Republican Trump, who 10 days ago announced that he will run again in 2024, was banned on January 8, 2021, from Twitter under its previous owners.
At the time, Twitter said it had suspended him indefinitely due to the risk of violence following the Capitol storm. The results of the November 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden were confirmed by whites when the Capitol was stormed after weeks of Trump’s claims that he had won.
Trump has repeatedly used Twitter and other social media sites to falsely claim that there was widespread voter fraud, and urged supporters to march on the Capitol in Washington to protest.
The attack is being investigated by US prosecutors and a congressional committee.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday on Musk’s statement that Trump did not violate any of Twitter’s terms of service when his account was suspended.
Earlier on Friday, Musk tweeted that calling for violence or inciting violence on Twitter would lead to suspension, after saying on Thursday that Twitter would offer a “general amnesty” to suspended accounts that did not violate the law or engage in spam.
In response to the tweet, Musk said it was “deeply disturbing” that Twitter did not take action earlier to remove other accounts associated with the far-left organization Antifa. In response to another tweet asking if Musk considered the statement “trans people deserve to die” worthy of being put on stage, the billionaire said: “Absolutely”.
Change and turmoil have marked Musk’s first few weeks as Twitter owner. He fired senior managers and it was announced that senior security and privacy officials had resigned.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
