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Twitter: Twitter unblocks ex-President Trump’s account

Twitter: Twitter unblocks ex-President Trump’s account

Actually, Elon Musk only wanted to reactivate controversial accounts after the establishment of an advisory committee. But now he’s bringing back Donald Trump’s profile.

Twitter has restored ex-President Donald Trump’s account, which has been suspended since early 2021. The Republican’s profile was available again on Saturday evening (local time) – with the previous tweet from January 8, 2021 at the top.

Link to Trump account

A few minutes earlier, the new Twitter owner Elon Musk had announced the activation after a survey among users of the short message service. Trump had confirmed shortly before the survey deadline that he wanted to stay with his own Twitter copy Truth Social.

Trump’s account, which once had more than 80 million followers on Twitter, has had its subscriber count reset to zero. A few minutes after the activation, the “@realDonaldTrump” profile was already followed by more than a million Twitter users. At Truth Social, Trump has just over four million subscribers. The Republican ex-president had just announced that he was running for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election – and could therefore use a larger platform with more reach.

“The people have spoken,” Musk wrote of his decision. However, the survey was not representative: Around 15 million users took part in the survey scheduled by Musk for 24 hours, while the service has more than 230 million daily active users according to the latest available information. A narrow majority of 51.8 percent voted in favor of Trump’s return.

Trump profile deactivated since January 2021

Trump has been banned from Twitter since January 2021. On January 6, he expressed sympathy for his supporters who stormed the Capitol, the seat of the US Parliament in Washington. There, Joe Biden’s election victory was to be officially sealed. Because of the attack, this didn’t happen until hours later.

Trump had fed false expectations among his supporters that Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to confirm the election results that day. During the attack, Trump tweeted that Pence didn’t have the courage to do the right thing. Afterwards, people in the crowd shouted, “Hang Mike Pence!” Twitter interpreted Trump’s behavior as a call for violence and permanently blocked his account because it was not the first violation.

The offensive tweets from January 6th are missing from the unlocked profile. Trump’s refuted claims about the presidential election allegedly being stolen from him by Joe Biden continue to come with cautionary tales.

Musk is committed to Republican positions

Until Musk took over, Twitter executives had always said that there was no way for the ex-president to return. Musk, who recently acknowledged the political positions of Trump’s Republicans, had emphasized months ago that, in his view, there should be no lifelong bans on the service. He expressly mentioned Trump as an example.

Three weeks ago, however, Musk announced that before restoring significant accounts, a council would be formed to deal with controversial content. This now seems obsolete.

Trump wants to remain loyal to Truth Social

Trump himself has said repeatedly that he does not want to return to Twitter. He likes it much better with his own copy of Twitter, Truth Social. On Saturday, too, he recommended that his followers take part in the survey, but wrote: “We’re not going anywhere. Truth Social is special!”

Facebook, where Trump has also been blocked since January 2021, wants to decide next January whether the ex-president could be offered a return.

Twitter has restored ex-President Donald Trump’s account, which has been suspended since early 2021.

The Republican’s profile was available again on Saturday evening (local time) – with the previous tweet from January 8, 2021 at the top. A few minutes earlier, the new Twitter owner Elon Musk had announced the activation after a user survey.

Source: Stern

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