Musk votes Trump

Twitter owner Elon Musk is letting users of the online service vote in a poll whether ex-President Donald Trump’s account should be restored. The tech billionaire kicked off the 24-hour survey in a tweet Saturday night. “Vox populi, vox dei” (the voice of the people (is) the voice of God), Musk wrote in a tweet afterwards.

Trump has been banned from Twitter since January 2021. On January 6, he expressed his condolences to his supporters who had stormed the Capitol in Washington. There, Joe Biden’s election victory would be officially sealed – which did not happen until hours later because of the attack.

Trump raised false expectations among his supporters that Vice President Mike Pence might refuse to confirm the election results that day. During the attack, Trump tweeted that Pence lacked the courage to do the right thing. Then people in the crowd shouted, “Hang Mike Pence!” Twitter took Trump’s behavior that day as a call to violence and permanently blocked his account because it was not the first offense.

Trump does not want to return

Until Musk took over, Twitter executives had always said there was no way for the ex-president to return. Musk, who recently acknowledged the political stances of Trump’s Republicans, said months ago that he doesn’t think there should be a lifetime ban on the service. He specifically mentioned Trump.

However, Musk announced that before major accounts are reinstated, a council for dealing with controversial content would be formed. It is unclear whether he is now using the poll results to offer Trump a return sooner.

The former president himself has repeatedly stated that he does not want to return to Twitter. He likes it much more with his own copy of Twitter, Truth Social. However, Trump once had more than 80 million followers on Twitter – on Truth Social it’s only a few million. And the ex-president just announced that he is running for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

Facebook, where Trump has also been blocked since January 2021, wants to decide next January whether the ex-president can be offered a return. (sda/dpa)