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Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he would end the permanent ban of former President Donald Trump from Twitter.
“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said in a live interview with the Financial Times. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and it did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Musk and Twitter’s board of directors agreed on a deal last month for the billionaire to buy the platform for $44 billion.
Musk on Tuesday said Twitter’s decision to boot Trump from the app in January 2021 was “morally bad” and “foolish in the extreme.” He added that so-called permabans “should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots” or spam accounts.
“If they say something that is illegal or otherwise just destructive to the world — then there should be perhaps a timeout, a temporary suspension. … But I think permabans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter,” Musk said.
While Musk’s ownership of Twitter would apparently lift the former president’s ban, Trump told Fox News last month that he would not return to the app and would instead stay on his own platform, Truth Social. Musk on Tuesday cited Trump’s use of Truth Social as a reason why Twitter’s permanent ban on Trump didn’t work to silence him.
“He is now going to be on Truth Social, as will a large part of sort of the right in the United States,” Musk said. “So I think this could end up being, frankly, worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate.”
Source: Politico
