Elon Musk Will Reportedly ‘Do Away With’ Lifetime Twitter Bans, Possibly Paving the Way for Trump and Others to Return
Saul Martinez/Getty Images
Elon Musk plans to reverse lifetime bans on Twitter, Bloomberg reported late Thursday night, hours after the billionaire completed his $44 billion acquisition of the company.
Upon taking the helm, Musk fired several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk has assumed the CEO role, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, Twitter will be delisted by the New York Stock Exchange because the company is now privately-held.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, Bloomberg stated that Musk will ban permanent suspensions on the platform:
Musk also intends to do away with permanent bans on users because he doesn’t believe in lifelong prohibitions, the person said. That means people previously booted off the platform may be allowed to return, though it was unclear if that included former president Donald Trump, the person said.
It is unknown if the prohibition on lifetime bans will apply retroactively to users who have already been barred from Twitter. That would include former President Donald Trump, who was given the heave-ho after he incited the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In the run-up to the riot, Trump falsely claimed the election had been stolen from him – including on Twitter.
Trump has stated that even if given the chance to return, he won’t.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” he said in April, referring to his own social media platform.
Others suspended from Twitter include Alex Jones, David Duke, Azealia Banks, George Zimmerman, Milo Yiannopoulos, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Mike Lindell, and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account (as opposed to her congressional one).
Musk has pledged to make Twitter a haven for free speech. However, on Thursday he hedged on that promise by issuing a statement to Twitter’s advertisers, saying that “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
It is unclear what Musk’s plan is for content moderation at such a large scale is – or if he has one at all.
