Elon Musk restores Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Sunday reinstated former US President Donald Trump’s account on the social media platform. Twitter had suspended Trump’s account two days after a mob backing Trump stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The social media platform in a statement on January 8 said that it had permanently suspended the account after a close review of his Tweets, which it feared could further incite violence. 

Musk launched a poll on Saturday asking people to vote on whether Trump should be reinstated. More than 15 million people participated in the survey, which went in favour of Trump with 51.8 per cent saying reinstate the former President while 48.20 were against the reversal of the ban.  

After the poll, Musk said: “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”

While Musk has announced the reinstation of his account, Trump is yet to return to the platform. After he was suspended from Twitter, Trump’s company developed a new social media platform – Truth Social. 

According to Reuters, Trump may not return to Twitter. “I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump said when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, Reuters reported on Sunday.  

Earlier this year, Trump had said that he won’t return to Twitter even if he was reinstated. Speaking to Fox News, the former President said: “I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH.” He had also praised Musk saying the Tesla chief is a good man, “but I am going to be staying on TRUTH”.