Donald Trump’s Twitter account was permanently suspended after decisions were made regarding the risk of incitement of violence. This coincided with the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Elon Musk has had a string of controversial decisions since buying out Twitter, including the monetization of confirmed accounts with the Twitter Blue option, service interruptions, and the mass layoffs of the platform’s employees. What does reinstating the suspended account of one of the most divisive public figures of our time entail? Read on for more.
After Elon Musk posted on his official Twitter account a public poll to determine whether to reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account, the tweet went viral and received millions of respondents.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022 The results show that those in favor of reinstating Trump’s Twitter account was 51.8% of the total, with 48.2% opposing the move. The polls reflect the votes of 15,085,458 respondents by the finally tally. However, Elon Musk pointed out that 134 million people saw the poll, which means roughly only a tenth of those who have seen it chose to participate. As a result of the poll, Musk has effectively reinstated Donald Trump’s official Twitter account. Musk has quoted the adage “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, which is an excerpt from the scholar and theologian Alcuin in his letter to Emperor Charlemagne in 798 AD. The basic translation of Vox Populi, Vox Dei is “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” It is often used as a shorthand way of justifying that the decision of the majority is to be followed. However, the full transcript of that part of Alcuin’s letter actually reads: Translating it into English, it reads: Essentially, Alcuin was informing Emperor Charlemagne of not listening to the crowd or the rabble, as it leads to madness. However, despite the full context, most people (particularly celebrities and politicians) have used only the Vox Populi, Vox Dei phrase. It should be noted that the controversial former U.S. President is not the only high profile figure whose previously banned Twitter account was reinstated. Earlier this week, Musk announced in a tweet that they are reinstating Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson, and Babylon Bee. Interestingly, at the time of these account reinstatements, the Twitter CEO mentioned that no decision was made yet regarding Donald Trump’s account.
Trump decision has not yet been made. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022 Musk pointed out that the Twitter policy under his watch will be strict with regard to negative or hate tweets, particularly those intended for monetization: However, despite the reinstatement of Donald Trump’s Twitter account, it seems the ex-U.S. President will not be returning to the platform. According to a report by Reuters on November 19, Donald Trump stated that he had no interest in using Twitter in favor of his own platform Truth Social. Truth Social is the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group startup.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021 Reportedly, Donald Trump has 4.57 million followers on his Truth Social platform. But as of the time of this writing, Donald J. Trump’s reinstated Twitter account currently has 86.4 million followers.
