Exclude Donald Trump after the attack on the Capitol? It was a “morally bad” decision in the eyes of Elon Musk, the future boss of Twitter if he manages to buy the social network for 44 billion dollars. If so: “I would lift the final suspension” of the former president, said the billionaire on Tuesday, May 10. “I think it was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and ultimately did not prevent Donald Trump from being heard” since he is now on his own social network, underlined the entrepreneur during a conference organized by the Financial Times.
Permanent bans should be “extremely rare” and reserved for example for fake accounts, he added during his video intervention. The buyback transaction is not yet finalized. While the Tesla boss’s offer has been accepted by the board, shareholders still need to approve the deal and “several issues still need to be resolved,” Musk said. “In the best case, it may be done in two or three months.”
A preference for temporary suspensions rather than banishment
But the multi-billionaire, who wants to withdraw Twitter from the Stock Exchange, has already proclaimed that he wants to make it a bastion of freedom of expression, which he considers flouted by too strict content moderation. On Tuesday, May 10, he made clear his preference for temporary suspensions or deletion of the most problematic tweets rather than outright bans. The former US president was banned from Twitter on January 8, 2021 due to the risk of incitement to violence following the violent attack on the Capitol.
