In a speech on Saturday, he said “I don’t see any reason” to go back to Twitter. It seems quite possible that, should he return to Twitter, he would use and misuse the platform just as he did before.īut as it turns out, just because Trump’s account was restored doesn’t mean you’ll be able to find him there. Trump’s frequent, misinformation-laden outbursts on Truth Social have failed to drive the news cycle the way his old tweets did, and for the moment his power appears to be on the decline.Īnd yet: he is still arguably the most powerful and popular figure in the Republican party, and he is once again running for president. These concerns can feel somewhat distant now that Trump has been weakened by the failure of so many candidates he endorsed to win office in the midterms, as well as the spiraling legal challenges he faces related to the events of Jan. Millions of other people had lost their accounts for far smaller infractions surely mounting a coup justified extraordinary intervention. Social networks were unlikely to survive intact in a world in which America’s democracy was replaced by authoritarianism if only for self-preservation, then, platforms were smart to remove his account. Banning Trump was necessary and urgent, I wrote, because he was using social networks to aid in his effort to overthrow the government and the rule of law. Writing about this issue on January 6, 2021, I (Casey) had taken the opposite view. As the New York Times had reported him saying at the time, the ban was “a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.” Moreover, Musk said, it was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid,” and “permanent bans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter.” For starters, he had pre-announced the outcome in May. There was reason to doubt the significance of the people’s voice in helping Musk make his decision. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” The voice of the people is the voice of god. “The people have spoken,” Musk tweeted the following day. After 15 million votes on a poll that Elon Musk posted Friday afternoon, and 51.8 percent voting in favor, the Twitter account of Donald Trump was restored into existence. In the end it came down to, of all things, a Twitter poll. Let’s talk about what we’ve learned over the past few days. “portrait of donald trump smiling,” Stable DiffusionĪfter another manic weekend at Twitter, questions continue to mount about Elon Musk’s business strategy, his approach to content moderation, and whether his remaining team can keep the servers up and running during a period of increased demand.
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