Two days after saying he would reverse the measure that banned former US President Donald Trump from Twitter, businessman Elon Musk sought to make it clear that he may not be a supporter of the Republican if he decides to run again for the Executive in 2024.
The speech of the billionaire, who last month bought the platform for US$ 44 billion (R$ 225 billion, at the current price), came, unsurprisingly, in tweets published on the night of this Thursday (12). In the messages, he confirmed that he defends the return of the politician to the social network.
“Even though I think a less polarizing candidate is better in 2024, I still believe Trump should have his Twitter account restored,” Musk wrote. He then dedicated a tweet to criticizing the man who defeated the Republican at the polls two years ago. “The mistake of [Joe] Biden is that he thinks he was elected to transform the country, when really everyone just wanted less drama.”
Last Tuesday (10), the richest man in the world said at an event in the Financial Times that he considers it a mistake to ban the former Republican president from the platform, adopted as a result of comments made about the invasion of the Capitol, on 6 January 2021.
“It was a morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme. It alienated a large part of the country and ultimately did not result in Donald Trump having no voice.”
Commenting on the statement, the White House said that it is up to Twitter to decide whether or not the Republican should have the account banned and stressed that it is important that social networks protect freedom of expression without becoming forums for disinformation.
On the same day that Musk’s billion-dollar offer was accepted by the platform, Trump even said he had no interest in restoring his profile. In an interview with Fox News, the politician stated that he would formally integrate his own social network, Truth Social. “I’m not going to Twitter, I’m staying at Truth. But I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’s going to make improvements and he’s a good man.”
The billionaire defines himself as a defender of freedom of expression, and therefore, although he has not objectively clarified his plans for the social network, it is speculated that he may cut the layers of moderation imposed by the platform in recent years — in particular to curb the spread of disinformation and hate speech.
Musk has already assumed he was a voter for Barack Obama, but this year he said the Democratic Party “is taken over by extremists.” In 2020, he even supported Andrew Yang’s presidential bid — who would drop out before Democrats nominate Biden — and then did not publicly declare the vote.​
Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account in early 2021, just days after a mob swelled by him storming the US Capitol during Joe Biden’s victory seal.
At the time, the company explained that it decided to suspend the profile of 88 million followers after “a detailed analysis of recent messages from the account [de Trump] and the context around them.” Twitter Safety, which takes care of the platform’s security, justified the ban by saying that the social network’s structure exists to allow users to listen to world leaders directly, but that “these accounts are not above the rules”. “They cannot use Twitter to incite violence.”
The suspension was part of a movement by several social networks, which also temporarily or not, blocked the former president’s accounts. With the attack on Capitol Hill, companies came under heavy pressure due to their role in spreading fake news and hate speech.
