by top line
a twitter poll of Elon Musk asking users if he should reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account reached 13 million votes on Saturday afternoon, with a slim majority in favor of bringing Trump back, as Musk polls the masses ahead of a of your most anticipated decisions.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California. … [+]
key facts
As of 2:50 p.m. ET, more than 13.3 million Twitter users had voted in Musk’s poll, with 52.1% in favor of bringing Trump back.
It’s unclear if Musk will use the result to determine whether to reinstate Trump’s account, but he tweeted a response to the poll that read “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice.” . of God.”
There are less than 5 hours of voting left in the 24-hour polling period – the poll closes at 7:47 pm ET.
key background
Trump often tweeted dozens of times a day while he was president, but his account was banned shortly after his supporters staged their Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “due to the risk of further incitement to violence,” Twitter said in a statement. that moment. Musk said in May that he planned to lift Trump’s “dumb” Twitter ban once he took control of the company, but he hasn’t done so yet after owning Twitter for just over three weeks. The platform’s content moderation policies have been changing since Musk took over and appear to be changing at the whim of the billionaire, much to the dismay of many companies who are now pulling ads from Twitter. Musk on Friday lifted the suspensions of several accounts, including that of comedian Kathy Griffin, despite her saying earlier this month that she was permanently banned for impersonating him. Musk also claimed shortly after taking over Twitter that existing content moderation policies were still in place, but appeared to set new standards on Friday, saying hate speech will be allowed, but tweets containing hate language will be “reinforced.” and demonetized.” Musk has pledged to allow all expression permitted by law on Twitter.
Against
Musk has repeatedly rejected calls to allow conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on the platform, tweeting “shame” on Friday to a user who said he should be allowed back.
Tangent
Trump announced his 2024 presidential bid on Tuesday. On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel to oversee two investigations involving Trump, one into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the other into classified documents recovered at Mar-A-Lago as Trump officially became a political opponent of the president. Joe Biden.
Other reading
Musk says he would lift Twitter’s ‘dumb’ ban on Trump (Forbes)
Balenciaga Deletes Twitter Account After Musk Sale: Here Are The Others Reconsidering Their Ties (Forbes)
‘Free speech, but not freedom of scope’: Musk reinstates Kathy Griffin and Jordan Peterson amid new politics, but not Trump yet (Forbes)
Trump Launches 2024 Presidential Candidacy (Forbes)
Attorney General Garland appoints special counsel to determine if Trump faces charges (Forbes)
