Is Donald Trump coming back to Elon Musk’s Twitter?

One of the main points of conversation with Elon Musk becoming the sole owner of Twitter is “free speech”. Musk has been very vocal about supporting free speech on the platform and has called himself a “self-confessed free speech absolutist”. 

He also wrote a letter to the Twitter board earlier this month stating that while Twitter is “the platform for free speech around the world”, this “social imperative” cannot be realised if Twitter remains in its current form, and thus “needs to be transformed as a private company”. 

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” Musk wrote after the Twitter deal came through.

Also Read: And it’s done. Elon Musk now owns Twitter.

Speaking about content moderation on the platform, Musk said during the TED2022 talk that he would be “very reluctant to delete things” and “just be very cautious with permanent bans - timeouts, I think, are better”. And when it comes to controversial tweets, Musk believes in just not promoting those, and is of the opinion that Twitter should not regulate content beyond what is required by the laws of the country it is operating in. 

This brings us to the one rumour that everyone has been talking about - is Donald Trump coming back to Twitter?

With Musk helming things, he would possibly not delete even the worst of tweets, just not promote them. And also, not ban someone like Trump off the platform, ask him sit out for a while instead. Possibly. 

Musk’s bid for Twitter has been seen as a “win for conservatives”. While there is surely no proof regarding this, overall, Musk’s win in this round is being seen as a segway for many controversial and banned accounts making their way back to the platform. 

Also Read: Explainer: Why is Elon Musk buying Twitter? 

However, before we have a full-blown crisis about Trump coming back on Twitter, the former American president has said that he has no plans of coming back to the platform and instead wants to focus on his own social platform that’s called Truth Social. 

Trump told Fox News that even if his account is reinstated on Twitter, he’s not coming back.  

“I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.”

In case you do not remember exactly why Trump was booted off Twitter - we’ll remind you. Twitter banned Trump after the January 6, 2020, insurrection at Capitol Hill to prevent the “risk of further incitement of violence”. 

Trump has serially been spreading lies about his 2020 election defeat in speeches and statements since he left office. He was also kicked off other social media platforms leading to him suing Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, claiming that “he and other conservatives have been wrongfully censored”. 

Musk’s views on moderation, censorship, and bans opens the room up for a lot of pardons and possibilities for controversial users going on a rampage - he’d just not “promote” those tweets, you know?

We really do not know yet how this is going to pan out, or if we’ll wake up after six months to find Trump back on Twitter. Here’s hoping we don’t. 

Also Read: Human rights groups raise concerns on hate speech after Musk's Twitter deal

Also Read: Now that Elon Musk is Twitter overlord, what’s expected to change?