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Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Donald Trump’s Twitter ban ‘bad, foolish’: Elon Musk

Mr Trump had previously said he would not return to Twitter, preferring to remain on his Truth Social platform.

• May 10, 2022

Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has announced his intentions to reverse Twitter’s ban on former U.S. President Donald Trump once his buyout is complete.

“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country…” Mr Musk said, “…a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme.”

In an interview with Financial Times on Tuesday, Mr Musk discussed permanent bans on Twitter user’s accounts, criticising the policy as “morally wrong.”

The microblogging platform banned Mr Trump’s account, with over 88 million followers, for posting violence-inciting tweets in the aftermath of last year’s January 6 riot at the capitol.

His actions, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” violated Twitter’s guidelines.

Following Mr Musk’s offer to buy the social media platform, Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s serving CEO, announced that the decision to unban Mr Trump would be Mr Musk’s responsibility.  

Mr Trump, however, had previously said he would not return to Twitter even if offered the chance, adding that he will remain on his Truth Social platform.

In late April, the former U.S. president told CNBC in an interview, “No, I won’t be going back on Twitter. I will be on Truth Social within the week. It’s on schedule.”

Mr Musk had secured $46.5 billion for the takeover and proposed $54.20 per share, persuading initially dissenting shareholders into agreeing to the sale. 

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