It’s no new news that Twitter is Elon Musk’s latest acquisition. The self proclaimed ‘free speech absolutist’ created a poll on Twitter asking if the former president should be reinstated. With a small margin accumulated with over fifteen million votes the ex-president was reinstated.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593767953706921985?s=20&t=sJkUb9sEYQAaXf-c48JBng
Whether Trump actually decides to come back is unclear as he posts through his own social media platform ‘Truth’ now. Trump previously commented on Musk’s takeover of Twitter saying “I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth.”
After the poll resulted in Trump’s favor, Elon tweeted “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1594131768298315777?s=20&t=zgJMbfh8qg9qhhmwnmlMBg
Alex Stamos, the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, said it was “odd” that Musk, who has spent such a considerable amount complaining about Twitter’s problem with bot accounts, would use a Twitter poll which could be easily be influenced by bots to decide the issue and then assume that the result “reflects some kind of legitimate ‘voice of the people.”( Source: New York Times)
The former President was banned from the platform for posting tweets that could further hate speech and incitement earlier this year in January.
Flag bearers of free speech may be taking it as a victory but it also raises concern over the use of hate to influence public sentiment. This news comes soon after the former president announced his plans of running for the White House again in 2024.
