Twitter users vote, and Musk says Trump will be reinstated on the social network

The billionaire and now owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, said this Saturday (19) that his social network will allow former US President Donald Trump to have a profile on the platform again. The Republican’s account was suspended in January last year, two days after the invasion of the Capitol.

Musk’s decision follows the result of a poll released by the billionaire in his account. More than 15 million users participated in the vote, with 51.8% voting in favor of the former president – ​​it is impossible to ensure that fake profiles did not participate in the process, since Twitter hosts millions of these users.

“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted after the vote ended.

It is uncertain, however, if the republican will accept to return to the social network. Just this Saturday, he said he was no longer interested in Twitter, even though, at that moment, the vote was already leaning in his favor. “I don’t see any reason for that,” Trump said in a video when asked if he planned to return to Twitter.

The Republican also said that he would continue to give preference to the Truth Social platform, developed by his startup after he was banned from Twitter. According to Trump, the new social network is doing “phenomeally well” and guarantees better engagement than Musk’s platform. He also pointed to the existence of fake Twitter accounts.

Truth Social launched in February for Apple phones and in August for Android devices. On the social network, Trump has about 4.57 million followers, against 1.2 million on Twitter. The platform has been the republican’s main source of direct communication with his followers and, there, he promotes allies, criticizes opponents and defends himself from the various investigations he is the target of.

According to the Reuters news agency, Trump’s contract with Truth Social obliges him to give the social network six hours of exclusivity on any post. The Republican, however, can post “political messages, political fundraising or voting efforts” on any website, at any time.

Still in this Saturday’s video, Trump praised Musk and said he always liked him. The affection is justified: the billionaire often makes pro-Republican comments and, even in May, he made it clear that he planned to reverse the ban on the former president’s account.

At the time, investors criticized the billionaire’s plans, which gradually reformulated his proposal. According to him, such a decision would be taken with consideration by a content moderation board composed of people with “widely diverse points of view” and no account reinstatement would take place before the board’s convening.

He also said that Twitter would not reinstate any banned users until there was a “clear process for doing so”.

In the opposite direction, however, this week Twitter reinstated the account of comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been banned for changing the name of her profile to “Elon Musk” – a new rule of the social network prevents people from falsifying their identity without indicating that this is a parody.

At the same time, Musk halved the company’s workforce and severely cut the social network’s security team, responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content.

After the announcements, large companies stopped advertising on the platform. On Saturday, Bloomberg reported that Twitter could lay off more employees in its sales and partnership divisions, citing unnamed sources.