Twitter on Sunday reinstated former United States President Donald Trump’s account, 24 months after it was permanently banned.
Trump was reinstated after its billionaire owner Elon Musk held a poll asking whether the former president’s account should be restored. More than a crore Twitter users voted in the poll with 51.8% voting in favour of Trump.
“The people have spoken,” Musk wrote after the poll. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei [the voice of the people is the voice of God].”
Twitter had permanently suspended Trump’s account in January 2021 after thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, and clashed with the police. Five people died in the violence, including a police officer.
The social media platform had said Trump’s account was suspended in view of the “risk of further incitement of violence”.
Besides Trump, Twitter had also suspended the account belonging to his campaign. Facebook and its sister company Instagram had also blocked Trump’s accounts for policy violations for an indefinite period.
On Friday, Trump said he was not keen on returning to Twitter, reported Reuters.
“I don’t see any reason for it,” he said during a discussion at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.
Trump added that he would stick to his own Truth Social platform, which he said was doing “phenomenally well” and had a better user engagement than Twitter. Truth Social was created by Trump Media and Technology Group in October 2021.
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