Why Donald Trump Suspended Twitter After Elon Musk Reactivated His Account
Donald Trump on Saturday said he has no interest in returning to Twitter despite a small majority voting to reinstate the former US president, who was banned from social media for promoting violence, in an election organized by new owner Elon Musk.
More than 15 million Twitter users voted in the election with 51.8 percent voting in favor of reinstatement.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk said on Twitter.
Trump’s Twitter account, which had more than 88 million followers before it was banned on January 8, 2021, started gaining followers and had nearly 100,000 followers at 10pm ET on Saturday (8:30 AM on Monday IST). Some users first reported that they could not track the account that was restored on Saturday evening.
Trump appeared unpopular earlier in the day.
“I don’t see the reason for that,” the former president said via video when asked if he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.
He said he would stick to his new platform Truth Social, an app created by his startup Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which he said interacted better with users than Twitter and was doing “very well”.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to win back the White House in 2024, praised Musk and said he already liked him. But Trump also said Twitter has been plagued by bots, fake accounts and that the problems it has faced are “amazing”.
Musk first said in May that he planned to reverse Trump’s ban, and the timing of any Trump comeback was closely watched — and feared — by many Twitter advertisers.
The millionaire has since sought to assure users and advertisers that the decision will be taken after consideration by a content moderation council made up of people with “very different views” and that no account recovery will take place before the council meets.
He also said that Twitter will not reinstate any banned users until “there is a clear process to do so.”
But this week, Musk reinstated comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been banned for changing her profile name to “Elon Musk” in violation of his new anti-impersonation policy without disclosing that it was a parody account. There has been no new information about the process or the moderation council.
There is no reason to come back
Trump’s no-show could ease concerns among major advertisers, who are already reeling from Musk’s reshaping of Twitter.
He has cut staff in half and severely downsized the company’s trust and security team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of false information and harmful content.
These actions and Musk’s tweets have pressured major companies to stop advertising on the site as they monitor how the platform handles hate speech.
On Saturday, Bloomberg reported that Twitter could lay off more employees in its sales and partnerships divisions, citing unnamed sources, just days after a mass layoff of engineers.
If Trump returns to Twitter, the move will raise questions about his commitment to Truth Social, which launched on Apple’s App Store in February and the Google Play Store in October. Trump has about 4.57 million followers on Truth Social.
Truth Social has been Trump’s primary source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app every May. He has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticize his opponents and protect his reputation amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators.
His deal with the company, however, opens the door for Trump to become more involved in other arenas. Trump is obligated to give Truth Social only six hours for any post — but is free to post “political messages, political fundraising or get-out-the-vote efforts” on any site, at any time, according to the May SEC filing. to fill .
© Thomson Reuters 2022
