Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has said he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former US President, Donald Trump once he takes ownership of the social media platform. This is even as he condemned Twitter’s policy of permanent ban on the platform’s users.
Speaking in an interview with Financial Times, Musk, who is on the verge of acquiring Twitter after a $44 billion agreement with the company’s board, described the ban on Trump as “morally wrong and outright stupid”.
He said he had spoken to Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey who agreed the platform should not have “permabans” on users that violate its content policies.
In the interview, Musk said: “I would reverse the permaban on Trump. “Obviously I don’t own Twitter yet, so this is not a thing that will definitely happen.”
“It was not correct to ban Donald Trump; I think that was a mistake,” added the Tesla chief executive.
Musk said the decision, made in the wake of the January 6 riots following Trump’s election loss, had “alienated a large part of the country”.
“It doesn’t end Trump’s voice. It will amplify it among the right. That’s why it’s morally wrong and outright stupid,” he added.
Musk said some of the changes he would make if he is successful in buying the company, would include putting the algorithm on GitHub and allowing anyone to make suggestions and for human interventions to be highlighted.
“You really want transparency to build trust,” he said.
Musk also said it would be important to reduce the left-leaning bias of the San Francisco-based company.
He said, “They’re just coming at it from an environment that is very far left. But it fails to build trust in the rest of the United States and perhaps other parts of the world.”
- On January 8th, Twitter “permanently suspended Trump’s account owing to the potential of additional encouragement of violence.”
- Twitter first suspended the former president’s account for “repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy” after he posted tweets reiterating falsehoods about the election being rigged. Two days later, the platform made the ban permanent.
- Trump had 88 million followers on Twitter before his account was suspended.
- Several other social media sites including Facebook, Snapchat and Youtube also barred him from using their services after a mob of Trump supporters invaded the US Capitol in a fatal riot
