Elon Musk to lift Donald Trump's Twitter ban
Written byTimes Magazine
Elon Musk has said if his bid to buy Twitter is successful, he will lift Donald Trump's ban on the platform.
Last month, the world's richest man negotiated a $44 billion (£34.5 billion) takeover bid with Twitter.
Who is Elon Musk?
In January 2021, Twitter said Trump's account was "permanently suspended ... because of the risk of further incitement to violence" following the Capitol raid.
But the Tesla owner said: "I would lift the ban permanently, but I don't have Twitter yet, so it's not going to happen."
He said the ban didn't sink Trump, but forcing him to move to his site, Truth Social raised his voice on the far right.
He said Trump had previously said he would not return to Twitter even if his account were reinstated. Musk said he spoke with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey about banning users from their social media accounts in response to the offensive tweet.
"He and I agree that permanent bans should be extremely rare and reserved for accounts that are bots or fraudulent accounts," he said.
Mr. Musk said if someone tweeted something "illegal or damaging to the world," there should be a temporary pause, or the post should be made invisible.
He said Twitter needs to build more trust by sharing its algorithms and asking people to make suggestions for improvements.
He said the company was heavily left-leaning because of its origins in the San Francisco tech community and needed to be "more equal."
Last week, the activist group wrote an open letter to Twitter advertisers warning that Twitter risks becoming a source of misinformation attached to your brand under Musk's leadership.
In the United States, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Biden administration wanted online platforms to protect freedom of expression and ensure that they were not forums for misinformation.
Ms. Psaki said it was not a private company that decided to allow Trump to return to Twitter.
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