Elon Musk conducted a survey and reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account
Elon Musk conducted a survey regarding the fate of the Twitter account of the 45th US President Donald Trump . 51.8% of the more than 15 million users who participated in the vote supported the restoration of Trump’s account. So @realDonaldTrump is back online, though after bot removal he only has 52.2 million followers instead of 88.7 million at the time of the ban.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei. [lat. The voice of the people, the voice of God.],” wrote Elon Musk.
Interestingly, Trump encouraged his supporters to vote in this poll, even though he himself suggested that he would not be returning to Twitter. There are no new tweets on the @realDonaldTrump account yet. Trump’s last tweet before the ban says that he will not attend the Inauguration of President Biden, January 20, 2021.
We should remind that Donald Trump was a very active user of Twitter, while, unlike many politicians, he managed this account himself. From the very beginning of his presidency, Trump actively used Twitter as an official mouthpiece of the government, including in foreign policy. In his fourth year in office, Trump averaged nearly 35 tweets a day. In general, this behavior of Trump contributed to the growing popularity of the platform among politicians.
Trump’s account was banned on January 8, 2021, according to Twitter, “due to the risk of further incitement to violence.” This happened two days after the infamous storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, organized by a group of supporters of Donald Trump, dissatisfied with the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Twitter message before the ban included a possible repeat attack on the Capitol, planned for January 17, 2021.
After the ban, Trump created his own social network Truth Social. The beta version of the network started on October 20, 2021, with a full launch on February 21, 2022. Currently, the network is only available to users from the United States.
On November 15, 2022, Trump announced that he would participate in the 2024 presidential election as the Republican candidate.