Elon Musk said Tuesday that he will overturn Twitter’s ban of former President Donald Trump after taking the social media company private.
SO WHAT
Liberals’ worst nightmare is getting very real.
WHAT HAPPENED
“Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts … I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said during an appearance at FT Live’s “Future of the Car” conference.
“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.”
- “I would reverse the permanent ban,” added Musk, a tech entrepreneur and the world’s richest man. “I don’t own Twitter yet. So this is not like a thing that will definitely happen, because what if I don’t own Twitter?”
- Musk said his $44 billion April 25 agreement with Twitter to buy the company would not be finalized for another two or three months.
WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF
Musk’s repeated promises to promote free speech on Twitter — along with his criticisms of the platform and the liberal establishment — have thrilled many conservatives.
- Some have dared to dream of the reinstatement of Trump’s account, which was permanently suspended over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
- Trump, though, recently said he would not return to Twitter and would instead post from his own social media startup, Truth Social.
Meanwhile, the media has been filled with dire warnings about how Musk’s takeover could promote disinformation and hate speech online — and destroy American democracy.
- “Will Musk use his clout to let Trump back on? I fear he will,” wrote Robert Reich, a former U.S. Secretary of Labor, in a widely circulated column for The Guardian last month.
- “Musk has long advocated a libertarian vision of an ‘uncontrolled’ internet. That vision is dangerous rubbish. … In reality, that world would be dominated by the richest and most powerful people in the world, who wouldn’t be accountable to anyone for facts, truth, science or the common good.
- “That’s Musk’s dream. And Trump’s. And [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s,” Reich continued. “And the dream of every dictator, strongman, demagogue and modern-day robber baron on Earth. For the rest of us, it would be a brave new nightmare.”
