Status: 11/20/2022 06:44 a.m
Twitter has restored ex-US President Trump’s account, which has been suspended since 2021. Twitter boss Musk had previously announced the step after a user survey. Trump himself, however, showed little willingness to return.
Trump is back on Twitter: The ex-US President’s profile was again available on the platform on Saturday evening – with the last tweet from January 8, 2021 at the top. A few minutes earlier, the new Twitter owner Elon Musk had announced the activation after a survey among users of the short message service.
“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 doesn’t want to go back to Twitter
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, his profile was already followed by more than a million Twitter users. At Truth Social, Trump has just over four million subscribers.
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.
Musk unlocks more profiles
Musk also lifted other profile bans. He announced that the accounts of comedian Kathy Griffin, psychologist Jordan Peterson and conservative parody site Babylon Bee had been “reinstated.” “The Babylon Bee” and Peterson were banned in March and August respectively for violating Twitter’s policy for making fun of transgender people. Griffin was recently banned after taking advantage of the new, relaxed Twitter rules to change her username to “Elon Musk.”
Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion at the end of October. Critics fear that he could drastically limit the fight against the spread of hate speech and fake news on Twitter.
is he back Donald Trump can tweet again!
Katharina Wilhelm, ARD Los Angeles, 20.11.2022 07:02 a.m