Former US president Donald Trump back on Twitter, Elon Musk confirms

Washington, Nov 20: Just three weeks after taking over Twitter, its new boss Elon Musk confirmed to reinstate the account of former US president Donald Trump.

1.5 Crore Votes in Poll

"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk tweeted. The decision was based on the poll that he ran on his personal Twitter account asking people whether Trump's account should be reinstated. It received over 15 crore people (15,085,458) votes out of which 51.8 per cent said "yes", indicating that they want the former US president to be back on Twitter while 48.2 per cent voted "no".

Trump's once-blocked Twitter account reappeared minutes after company owner Elon Musk announced he was lifting the 22-month suspension.

Trump Banned Over Capitol Attack

The former US president was banned from Twitter after the deadly Capitol attack on January 6, 20220, with Twitter citing the "risk of further incitement of violence". It denied him the megaphone he had used to generate media attention and speak directly to his followers, which had been integral to his political rise.

At the time, Trump had roughly 89 million followers on Twitter. "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them...we have permanently suspended the account," Twitter wrote in a blog at the time.

Is Trump Willing to Make Comeback?

However, Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, has not expressed his desire to make a comeback to Twitter. "I don't see any reason for it," the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting, according to a report in ANI.

Nonetheless, Trump has praised Musk saying that he had always liked him while stating that Twitter suffered from bots, and fake accounts and that the problems it faced were "incredible".

The latest development has not taken anyone by surprise as Musk on Friday reinstated accounts that were previously subject to indefinite bans for breaking the platform's rules. Author Jordan Peterson and comedian Kathy Griffin were among the first people whose accounts were restored.

Ever since he formally finished the Twitter deal in October last week, the Tesla CEO has been trying to bring lots of changes to the platform. From content moderation to cost-cutting measures, he has taken several tough decisions.