Elon Musk has said he will reverse Twitter’s permanent ban of former president Donald Trump once he takes over the platform. Musk also said he wants the punishment of permanent suspensions to be reserved strictly for “spam” and “scam” accounts.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said that if his takeover of Twitter is successful, Trump will be allowed back on the platform.
“It was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said. “I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country
“I would reverse the Twitter ban. Obviously, I don’t own Twitter yet, so this is not a thing that will definitely happen.”
“He’s now going to be on Truth Social, as will a large part of the right in the United States. So, I think this could end up being, frankly, worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate.”
Musk also said that, if his Twitter takeover bid succeeds, he will move away from permanent suspensions for all but “spam” and “scam” accounts, even in the case of illegal behavior.
“If they say something that is illegal or destructive to the world, then there should be perhaps a timeout, temporary suspension or that particular tweet should be made invisible or have very little traction.”
In April, Twitter accepted Musk’s offer to buy 100 percent of the platform at $54.20 per share, for a total of approximately $44 billion. However, the process of actually executing the deal is likely to take several months.
The prospect of Musk, a self-declared “free speech absolutist,” taking over the company has led to outrage from the platform’s progressive users, as well as the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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