Musk brings back Trump's Twitter account, but he's not back, yet

Washington

Former US president Donald Trump's once-blocked Twitter account reappeared on Saturday after the platform's new CEO Elon Musk announced he was lifting the ban.

"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," tweeted Musk. 

Shortly afterwards, Trump's suspended account was reinstated, complete with the 59,000 tweets he made during his time on the platform.

Trump's last tweet was two days after the US Capitol riots where he said he wasn't going to President Biden's inauguration.

"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th," Trump tweeted. 

However, his follower count was down, at least initially. As of the last update, Trump's follower count stood at 25 million, up from 500,000 at the start of the day.

Many netizens, however, complained that the 'Follow' button was not working properly and that even after clicking the button, they were not able to follow Trump.

WATCH | US: Elon Musk trolled outside Twitter headquarters in San Francisco

The chain of events commenced when Musk started a Twitter poll on the same day, asking his legion of 117 million followers if Trump should be reinstated. 

Over 51 per cent of votes were polled for the 'Yes' option while 48.2 per cent of voters did not want Trump back on the microblogging platform. As of the last update, according to Musk, his poll had been seen by over 134 million netizens. 

Earlier, the billionaire wrote under the poll, "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" which is a Latin phrase meaning, "the voice of the people is the voice of God". 

Trump was banned from several social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube after his alleged supporters stormed the US Capitol last year after the presidential election results did not go in favour of the Republican leader.

The social media companies primarily suggested that Trump was banned because he might further incite the mob with his continued presence on social media.

While Facebook said Trump could come back on the platform by 2023, Twitter, led by Jack Dorsey, at the time, said the ban was permanent.

Read more: Top Meta official to decide if Trump can return to Facebook & Instagram in 2023

However, Musk, a self-proclaimed 'free speech absolutist' has been an advocate of not banning people permanently on social media platforms. He reinstated the accounts of The Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson and Kathy Griffin. 

Trump, who after being banned had launched his own social media platform called Truth Social where he routinely gives an unabridged piece of his mind, however, was less than keen earlier in the day and said he had no interest in returning to Twitter.

Trump did praise Musk and said he had always liked him but added that Twitter suffered from bots, fake accounts and that the problems it faced were "incredible".

Trump never commented on return to Facebook, but had even in an interview earlier this year he made it clear that he will not be returning to the microblogging platform. 

“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. The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter,” said Trump.

“I hear we’re getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter. I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it," he added during a video speech to a Republican Jewish group meeting in Las Vegas on Saturday. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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