After the new Twitter boss Elon Musk (51) had the platform vote on whether the profile of ex-US president Donald Trump (76) should be unblocked, it was clear: the Republican can tweet again.
Yet it remains quiet around the former Twitter king Trump. Because just one tweet can cost him millions of dollars. As the news portal Semafor writes, the real estate magnate is tied to his own platform Truth Social.
Truth Social shareholders could sue him
After Trump was banned from Twitter following the violent Capitol storm in January 2021, he founded Truth Social. Together with his parent company Trump Media & Technology Group and a shareholding company, Trump aimed to make his social network public.
If Trump returns to Twitter, it could torpedo the company’s success in the stock market. This is because Trump’s 10 million Truth Social followers may also be returning to Twitter. This, in turn, could lead to shareholders suing him.
“If it turns out later that he never intended to leave Twitter, but merely persuaded people to go public with Truth Social, that would be a textbook example of a securities fraud lawsuit,” said Columbia Law School professor Eric Talley. , the news platform «Semafor». .
Trump’s return to Twitter would only have no legal consequences if his own platform always took precedence. This could mean regulations, such as the existing agreement that Trump cannot publish social media posts for six hours that he has already published on Truth Social on another social network. (dzc)