Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk suggested in a tweet that Donald Trump might use the platform again. He is currently having users vote on the issue in a poll on Twitter. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of god.”
At the time these lines were written, there were just under 22 hours left to vote, and the “yes” vote won 58.7%, compared to the “no”.
An ardent defender of freedom of expression, Elon Musk had already suggested in recent months that he could reinstate the former president’s Twitter account. But while he is officially at the head of the social network, this new survey seems to concretize these suggestions all the more.
Donald Trump had been banned from Twitter and Facebook following the assault on the capitol by his supporters. His own social platform, Truth Social, was also banned from Google Play. In the summer of 2021, he filed a complaint against Facebook, Twitter, Google and their bosses, accusing them of “censorship”.
On Friday, Elon Musk announced that he would reinstate banned Twitter accounts. These accounts — Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson, and Babylon Bee — belonging to well-known public figures embody media bubbles of the American left or right.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it’s important for the future of civilization to have a digital commonplace, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy way, without resort to violence, ”said Elon Musk, the day after the formalization of his purchase of Twitter.