New Delhi: Tesla chief Elon Musk on Tuesday put to rest speculations around Donald Trump’s ban on the social micro blogging site by saying he will reverse Twitter’s permanent ban on the former President after he concludes his deal to acquire the social media company for $44 billion.
Speaking virtually at a Future of the Car summit hosted by the Financial Times, Musk said Twitter’s Trump ban was a “morally bad decision” and “foolish in the extreme”, reported news agency AP.
Musk opinion on Donald Trump ban
The billionaire who called himself a "free speech absolutist" had hinted there would be less moderation on the site. Musk clarified that permanent bans of Twitter accounts should be rare and reserved for accounts that are scams or automated bots.
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Sharing his concerns over the ban Musk added, “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice”. “So I think this may end up being frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate. I guess the answer is that I would reverse the permanent ban.”
Musk also pointed out that his dislike for permanent bans is echoed by Jack Dorsey, the former co-founder and CEO of Twitter. Dorsey also shared his views through a tweet on Tuesday in which he said “generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work.”
Meanwhile, Twitter shares slipped 1.5 per cent on Tuesday to $47.24 per share, according to the AP report. Musk announced the offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share almost a month ago. Market observers believe that the low trading price reflects the Wall Street concerns that the deal could still fall through.
On many occasions, Musk has criticised Twitter’s content moderation decisions, including the Trump ban, but mostly avoided his decision on Trump’s account ban. Twitter banned Trump’s account in January 2021 for “incitement of violence” following the Jan 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
After the ban, Trump came up with his social media platform Truth Social. Trump has already stated that he will not be returning to Twitter if his account is reinstated, as per Fox News report. The former President told this in an interview with the channel a day after Twitter announced that it accepted Elon Musk’s offer to acquire the publicly traded company.