Musk’s plan to buy Twitter has worried politicians around the world.
Joe Skipper Reuters
Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he would lift Twitter’s ban on former President Donald Trump if the acquisition takes place.
“Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots or scams, spam accounts… I don’t think it’s right to ban Donald Trump,” Musk told FT Live’s Future of the Car conference. “I think it was a mistake because it alienated much of the country and ultimately did not lead to Donald Trump not having a voice.
“I would lift the permanent ban,” added Musk, who is expected to become interim chief executive after the takeover. “I don’t own Twitter yet. So this is not something that will definitely happen, because what will happen if I don’t own Twitter?
Twitter finally stopped Trump from the platform in January 2021 after his supporters attacked the US Capitol. The company said it made the decision after the January 6 riot “because of the risk of further incitement to violence”. Trump was on Twitter and had more than 80 million followers on the platform at the time.
After Musk announced that he was interested in taking over the company in part to turn it into a free speech platform, questions arose as to whether he would invite Trump back to Twitter. Last month, Trump said he would not return to social media if given the chance.
“No, I’m not going back to Twitter,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen. After the ban, Trump launched Truth Social, which is being charged as an alternative to free speech on high-tech platforms.
“I will be at Truth Social within a week. This is on schedule. We have a lot of people registered. I like Elon Musk. I like him very much. He is an excellent man. We did a lot for Twitter when I was in the White House. I was disappointed with the way I was treated by Twitter. “I’m not going back to Twitter,” Trump said.
Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, admitted on Tuesday that Trump had said he would not return to the platform. However, some people close to him say that they expect Trump to return to Twitter anyway.
White House officials and Democrat strategists are worried about Musk’s takeover on Twitter ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Some members of the Biden administration have become increasingly concerned that Musk will allow Trump and other Republican operatives to whom he was forbidden to enter the platform, to return, CNBC reported earlier.
– Laura Kolodny of CNBC contributed to this report.
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