Elon Musk has finally confirmed what many have long suspected: that he would allow Donald ***** back on Twitter.
In an interview with The Financial Times, Musk said that he would reinstate ***** when his deal to acquire Twitter closes. “I guess the answer is that I would reverse the perma ban,” Musk said in response to a question about whether he would allow the former president back on the platform. “Obviously, I don’t own Twitter yet. So this is not a thing that will definitely happen because what if I don’t own Twitter.”
Though Musk has long made it clear he disagrees with Twitter’s decision to ban *****, it’s the first time he has explicitly said he would “reverse” it. “I think bans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter as a town square where everyone can voice their opinion,” Musk said. He added that permanent bans should be reserved for “accounts that are bots or spam scam accounts.”
Whether Musk would bring back ***** has been a major question and the company’s own executives have told employees they don’t know what direction Musk will take the company. Employees have been concerned that Musk could reverse many of the company’s policies around trust and safety and reverse progress they have made in combatting online abuse and misinformation.
Musk said that accounts that break the company’s rules could still be punished with temporary suspensions or having individual tweets deleted. But he said that he and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey believe that permanent bans “should be extremely rare.”
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.