After it emerged that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk acquired 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, calls are growing for him to exert his influence to reinstate former US President Donald Trump’s access to the platform.
Recall that Trump’s account was permanently suspended after a string of skirmishes with the social media giant, which on many occasions said he breached its rules.
Days before the acquisition of the shares was announced, Musk openly criticised Twitter over its content moderating rules, amid musing whether another social media platform was needed.
Hours after the billionaire became Twitter’s majority shareholder, renewed calls for Trump’s reinstatement commenced among supporters of Trump and free speech advocates.
Outspoken GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado wrote:
Now that @ElonMusk is Twitter’s largest shareholder, it’s time to lift the political censorship.
Oh… and BRING BACK TRUMP!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) April 4, 2022
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Monica Crowley wrote:
Now that @elonmusk is Twitter's largest shareholder, he should demand the end of political censorship, company-wide reform, and the reinstatement of President Trump 🔥🔥🔥
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) April 4, 2022
American political columnist, Benny Johnson wrote:
My prediction:
Twitter reinstates the @TheBabylonBee today.
Twitter reinstates @charliekirk11 this week.
Twitter reinstates @RepMTG next week.
Trump gets brought back by the end of the summer.
Panic.
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 4, 2022
Republican Party aspirant for U.S. House of Representative Tennessee District 5 seat, Robby Starbuck wrote:
I hope you push for Twitter to reinstate everyone that they’ve banned over the past 5 years, including Trump. We need a real free speech giant to save the spirit of free speech in America.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) April 4, 2022
Host of The Liz Wheeler Show, Liz Wheeler wrote:
Twitter to-do list for @elonmusk:
– Buy all of it.
– End shadowbanning.
– Open source curating of trends.
– Stop “misinformation” warnings.
– Don’t ban science (gender & covid).
– Reinstate Alex Berenson, Dr. Robert Malone, Pres Trump & Babylon Bee.
– Commit to FREE SPEECH.
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) April 4, 2022
“As Twitter’s biggest shareholder, Elon Musk should demand to have President Trump reinstated,” @catturd2 wrote.
As Twitter's biggest shareholder, Elon Musk should demand to have President Trump reinstated.
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) April 4, 2022
Trump’s suspension
Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account on January 6, 2021, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.
The suspension was announced few days after some individuals stormed the US Capitol building and temporarily disrupted the Senate as it sat to certify Joe Biden victory in the November 2020 presidential election.
On January 6, 2021, the day of the unrest, Twitter had suspended his account for 12 hours after he called the Capitol invaders “patriots”.
Twitter warned it would make the suspension permanent if the president did not stop breaching its rules.
Two days later, Trump tweeted: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
In another tweet, he wrote: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Twitter said it interpreted the first tweet to mean that the president was not committed to peaceful transition of power, while it said the second tweet was “being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate”.
The social media giant made good its threat and permanently suspended the account.
However, many Trump supporters and free speech advocates accused Twitter of acting like a “judge” with the suspension of Trump’s account, adding that its conduct invalidated the protection it enjoys under Section 230, Title 47 of the Communications Decency Act.
Elon Musk’s poll
In the last week of March, Musk conducted an informal poll asking if users thought Twitter was doing a good job adhering to principles of free speech considering its importance to a “functional democracy”.
The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
The result of the poll showed an overwhelming number of the 2 million respondents thought Twitter did not.
“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk stated on March 26.
Trumphobia
Some supporters and pro-Trump groups insinuate a Silicon Valley gang-up with liberal policies and Democrat leaders to silence conservative voices and views, including Trump’s, in America.
Twitter helping Taliban, repressive regimes?
The platform has also been accused of condoning terrorists and aiding repressive regimes.
In August 2021, Twitter was criticised for allowing Twitter handles operated by the Taliban to remain on its platform as the terror group took control of Afghanistan.
As YouTube and Facebook announced a total ban of the Taliban from their platforms in accordance with US sanctions rules, Twitter shunned a blanket approach, choosing instead to remove individual pieces of violent content.
In February 2022, Twitter was also criticised for suspending accounts used by activists to demand better working conditions during the popular #TruckersProtest in Canada.
The Nigerian government which had a major brush with Twitter over the platform’s support for the famous #EndSARS protests said in a statement, “Twitter has suspended the truckers account while the Ontario government has frozen access to millions of dollars donated through online fundraising platform GiveSendGo to the protesters…
“Recall also that Twitter actively supported the EndSars protesters and even helped them to raise fund while GoFundMe was used to raise funds for the protests.
“These are the same entities that are now rushing to distance themselves from the protesters in Canada and even denying them the use of their platforms,” the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said.
With Musk coming on board, it remains to be seen if Trump’s access would be restored or not.