Despite calls from conservatives, Twitter says it will not reinstate President Donald Trump’s account as Elon Musk becomes the company’s largest shareholder.
Musk has been appointed as a member of Twitter zinc’s board of directors and has vowed to “make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months.” The restoration of Trump’s account apparently won’t be one of these improvements
“Twitter is committed to impartiality in the development and enforcement of its policies and rules,” the company told the Daily Mail “Our policy decisions are not determined by the Board or shareholders, and we have no plans to reverse any policy decisions.”
President Trump was banned from Twitter for “inciting violence”. The offending tweets are as follows: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” As well as; “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Twitter claimed that the second tweet may serve as encouragement for anyone considering violent acts because he would not be attending. Therefore, an attack would be safe.
They also claimed that the first would serve as confirmation for anyone hoping to act violently in the name of election fraud.
This reasoning is obviously flimsy as there is no legitimate incitement of violence anywhere in either tweet. The whole argument is one big grasp for straws.
It’s likely that the “improvements” that Elon strives toward will be related to moderation, free speech, and the prevention of censorship.
Prior to becoming a member of Twitter’s board of directors, and its largest shareholder, Elon was a vocal critic of the way the platform treats and punishes its users over speech.
Musk has called Twitter the “De facto town square” and noted that censoring speech on the platform is an undermining of democracy. Leading up to the announcement of his big purchase musk ran polls on his own Twitter account, asking users if they felt Twitter allows free speech.
Social media is in fact the place where the vast majority of political conversation occurs.