Former US President, Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had no interest in returning to Twitter, even though a narrow majority of voters in a survey conducted by Twitter's new owner Elon Musk supported his reinstatement after he was banned for inciting violence.
Elon Musk launched a Twitter poll late on Friday asking followers to vote on whether the former U.S. President Donald Trump's account should be reinstated on the platform.
A little over 15 million Twitter users participated in the poll, and 51.8% of them chose to support reinstatement.
"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated," Musk tweeted.
By 10 p.m. ET on Saturday, Trump's Twitter account, which had more than 88 million followers before he was banned on Jan. 8, 2021, had nearly 100,000 followers. Some users first complained on Saturday night that they were unable to follow the restored account.
Donald Trump, Image:Reuters
Trump shows less than keen interest.
"I don't see any reason for it," the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting.
Trump stated that he would continue with his new platform Truth Social, an app created by his business, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which he said had greater user interaction than Twitter and was performing "phenomenally well."
When asked on Saturday what he thought of Musk buying Twitter and his future on the platform, Trump commended Musk but expressed doubt that the site would survive its current issues.
"They have a lot of problems," Trump said in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting. "You see what's going on. It may make it, it may not make it."
Trump also said that Twitter had "incredible " issues, including bots and false accounts.
Still, Trump noted that he liked Musk and "liked that he bought (Twitter.)"
"He's a character and I tend to like characters."
"But he's smart," the former president said of Musk.
Reactivating Trump's Twitter Account
Musk first announced in May that he intended to lift the ban on Trump, adding that many of Twitter's advertisers were anxiously awaiting the timing of any comeback by Trump.
Since then, the billionaire has worked to reassure customers and sponsors that such a decision would be carefully considered by a content moderation committee made up of individuals with "widely diverse viewpoints" and that no account reinstatements would take place before the council meeting.
Musk further stated that until there was a "clear process for doing so," Twitter would not restore any banned users.
On November 18, Musk tweeted that he had reinstated several contentious accounts on the platform but added that a "Trump decision has not yet been made."
Musk said at the time," New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach. Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. You won't find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from the rest of the Internet."
Musk unbanned comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been removed for violating his new policy against impersonation by changing her profile name to "Elon Musk" and failing to make it clear that the account was a parody.
Regarding the process and the moderation council, no new information has emerged
Previously, Musk had said that he opposed Twitter's policy of permanent bans and that he would be willing to reinstate other accounts that had been banned on the platform for repeatedly violating the rules.
At a conference in May, Musk said, "I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump; I think that was a mistake," pledging to reverse the ban were he to become the company's owner.
According to CNN, Jack Dorsey, who was the CEO of Twitter when Trump was banned responded to Musk's remarks by saying he agreed that there should not be any permanent bans. Dorsey said that the banning of the former president was a"business decision" and "shouldn't have been."
No reason to go back- Trump
Major advertisers, who are already alarmed by Musk's radical restructuring of Twitter, might be less worried if Trump chooses not to return to Twitter, Reuters said.
The new Twitter boss has drastically reduced the trust and safety team, which is in charge of stopping the spread of harmful content and misinformation, and he has cut the personnel in half.
Following these developments as well as Musk's tweets, major firms have suspended their advertising on the site while they monitor how the platform handles hate speech, according to Reuters.
Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg reported on Saturday that Twitter may be forced to lay off further staff members in its sales and partnership units, just days after a mass resignation of its engineers.
Truth Social
Trump's Truth Social went live on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in February and October. On Truth Social, Trump has about 4.57 million fans.
Since he started posting often on the app in May, Trump's primary source of direct connection with his supporters has been Truth Social. Amid legal investigation from the state, congressional, and federal investigators, he has used Truth Social to support his allies, lambast opponents, and defend his reputation.
CNN said his agreement with the company allows Trump to actively participate on other platforms. According to a May SEC filing, Trump is required to grant Truth Social a six-hour exclusive on any post but is free to publish "political messaging, political fundraising, or get-out-the-vote efforts" on any site, at any time.
Throughout Trump's time in the White House, Twitter played a crucial role in his administration, which also helped the company by generating endless hours of user engagement. Twitter frequently used a light-handed approach to moderating his account, sometimes arguing that as a public figure, the then-president needed to be given the freedom to express himself.
The tide, however, shifted as Trump drew closer to the end of his presidency. As the 2020 presidential election approached, Twitter started adding warning labels to his tweets to rectify what it perceived as his false assertions. The platform barred him indefinitely after the protest in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," "In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action," Twitter said at the time.
According to Twitter, its decision followed two tweets from Trump that Twitter claimed broke its rule against glorifying violence.
The tweets, Twitter said at the time, "must be read in the context of broader events in the country and how the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks."
The first tweet -- a statement about Trump's supporters, who he called "75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me" -- suggested that "he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election," Twitter had said.
The second tweet, which indicated that he would not attend Joe Biden's inauguration, could be seen as a further admission that the election was fraudulent and could be taken to mean that Trump was saying that the inauguration would be a "safe" target for violence because he would not be there, according to Twitter.
After Trump's Twitter ban, he was also prohibited from using Meta's Facebook and Instagram. These platforms could restore his accounts as soon as January 2023.
Trump, announced on Tuesday that he would like to run again as President in 2024.
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