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| A photo illustration shows President Donald Trump's frozen Twitter account and lit windows displayed on a smartphone at the White House mansion in Washington, USA. (Joshua Roberts/Image) |
Donald Trump on Saturday voted in a poll hosted by new owner Elon Musk with a slim majority in favor of reviving the former U.S. president who was banned from the social media service for inciting violence. Despite this, he said he had no interest in returning to Twitter.
Just over 15 million Twitter users took the vote, with 51.8% voting in favor of returning.
"People have spoken. Trump will be back in the office," Musk tweeted.
Trump's Twitter account, which had more than 88 million followers before being banned on Jan. 8, 2021, began amassing followers and had almost 100,000 followers by 10 p.m. ET on Saturday. . Some users initially reported being unable to follow the revived account on Saturday night.
Trump appeared unenthusiastic earlier in the day.
When a panel at the Republican Jewish Union annual leadership conference asked if he plans to return to Twitter, the former president said via video, "I see no reason why."
He said he will continue to use his new platform, Truth Social, an app developed by the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which has higher user engagement than Twitter and is "going amazingly well." ".
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump, who launched a bid to retake the White House in 2024 on Tuesday, praised Musk and said he had always liked him. But Trump also said Twitter was plagued by bots and fake accounts. He said the problems he faced were "incredible".
Musk first said in May that he planned to lift the ban on Trump, but the timing of Trump's return was closely watched and feared by many advertisers on Twitter.
Billionaire then told users and advertisers that such a decision would be reviewed by a content moderation council made up of people with "widely diverse perspectives" and that account recovery would take place before a panel was convened. I've been trying to reassure you that it won't happen.
He also said Twitter would not reinstate banned users until a "clear process" was established.
But this week, Musk brought back comedian Kathy Griffin. Kathy Griffin was banned for changing his profile name to "Elon Musk" but violated his new rules against impersonation by not indicating that this was a parody account. Process or Moderation Council There is no further information about
No Reason to go back
Trump's no-show could allay the concerns of big advertisers.
He halved his workforce and slashed the company's trust and safety team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content.
These actions and Musk's tweet prompted major companies to stop advertising on their sites to monitor how their platforms handle hate speech.
Bloomberg reported on Saturday that Twitter may lay off more employees in its sales and partnerships division, citing unnamed sources, just days after a mass layoff of engineers.
If Trump returns to Twitter, the move calls into question his commitment to Truth Social, which launched on Apple's App Store in February and Google's Play Store in October. The number of followers is about 4.57 million.
Truth Social has been Trump's primary source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting regularly to the app in May. He has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticize his opponents, and defend his reputation amid legal scrutiny from the state, congressional, and federal agents.
But the deal with his company opens the door for Trump to engage broadly with other platforms. The SEC said in May that Trump was obligated to give Truth Social six hours of exclusivity on any post. , but you are free to post "political messages, political fundraising, or efforts to solicit votes" on any site at any time. filing.
(Source: Reuters)