Former US President Donald Trump said on Monday (25) that he will not return to Twitter even if his account is reactivated, after the platform was bought by billionaire Elon Musk.
In an interview with Fox News, the Republican said he will formally integrate his own social network, Truth Social, next week, as planned. “I’m not going to Twitter, I’m going to be on Truth,” he said. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’s going to make improvements and he’s a good man.”
The billionaire has already made statements that he believes Twitter should be a platform for free speech. Following the announcement of the purchase, officials asked the company’s current president, Parag Agrawal, about the future of Trump’s account. “Once the deal is done, we don’t know which direction the platform will go,” he replied. “I believe that when we have an opportunity to speak with Elon, it’s a question we should ask him.”
Twitter permanently banned the former president’s account in early 2021, just days after a Trump-inspired crowd stormed the US Capitol during Joe Biden’s victory seal. At the time, the company explained that “a detailed analysis of recent messages from the account [de Trump] and the context around them”, the decision to suspend was taken.
Twitter Safety, which takes care of the platform’s security, justified the ban by saying that the social network’s structure exists to allow the public to hear world leaders directly, but that “for years we have made it clear that these accounts are not above our rules”. “They cannot use Twitter to incite violence.”
Shortly after the decision, Trump posted on the official US Presidency account that Twitter had been “going further and further in banning free speech” and criticized Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which offers companies immunity from content. served by users and protects them from lawsuits.
This rule gives companies the power of moderation and stipulates that they are not responsible for comments that people post on their platforms. The messages were later deleted by Twitter.
Already at that time, the Republican raised the possibility of creating his own internet platform.
The suspension on Twitter was part of a movement by several platforms, which also temporarily or not, the former president’s accounts. With the attack on Capitol Hill, social media came under heavy pressure due to its role in spreading fake news and hate speech.
A report by Avaaz, a global human rights organization, for example, pointed out in March last year that Facebook allowed the spread of disinformation and content that incites violence, both in the period before the US presidential election and after the voting day.
