Ex-US President Donald Trump may have hopes of returning to Twitter in time for the 2024 White House race. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is in the process of taking over Twitter, would let Trump back on the platform. The decision to ban Trump was “morally wrong and just plain stupid,” Musk said in a video interview at a Financial Times event on Tuesday.
Former US President Donald Trump has recently been involved in a legal battle against the blocking of his Twitteraccount suffered a setback. A federal judge in the US state of California dismissed a corresponding lawsuit by Trump on Friday. However, the judge gave Trump and his lawyers the option of resubmitting them in a modified form. The plaintiffs would not argue from a strong position, it said in the verdict.
80 million followers
Twitter is a private company and the First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression, applies to state interference – but not to alleged interference by private companies, it said.
Twitter like Facebook and YouTube, Trump’s accounts were blocked in January 2021, shortly before the end of his term. The trigger was the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters – and that he expressed sympathy for the attackers. He also claimed – even now – without any evidence that his victory in the November presidential election was stolen by fraud. He heated up the mood in the country. Twitter, where he was followed by more than 80 million users, was the most important communication platform for him up to that point. The ex-president has been fighting against the blocking of his account for a long time.
$44 billion for takeover
Whether Musk, who accuses the service of overly restricting free speech, actually takes over Twitter depends on enough shareholders giving up their shares. He recently secured $7 billion from a group of investors for the $44 billion takeover of Twitter. Among them are Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and venture capitalists Sequoia Capital and Qatar Holding, according to a stock exchange announcement on Thursday. Ellison alone, who is considered a friend of Musk, provides around one billion dollars.
In addition, the Saudi Prince Alwalid bin Talal, who had initially rejected the takeover, agreed to bring in his stake of almost $2 billion instead of turning it into money. It was previously announced that Musk reduced his margin loan from $12.5 billion to $6.25 billion and increased his funding commitment to $27.25 billion. At the same time, the Tesla boss wants to get other shareholders on his side and is talking to former Twitter boss and founder Jack Dorsey, among others.
Twitter agreed
Just last week, the US short message service agreed to the takeover by Musk. According to insiders, he has already said in the financing talks with banks that he wants to find new ways to monetize tweets and cut executive salaries. At the moment, Twitter has around 217 million users. Twitter and Musk aim to complete the acquisition by the end of the year.
Source: Nachrichten
