Trump’s Twitter account restored: Will he accept Musk's invitation? Why was it suspended in the first place?

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Elon Musk, Twitter's new owner, conducted a poll in which Twitter users narrowly decided to reverse a ban imposed on the former US president, Donald Trump more than a year ago. This decision led to Twitter restoring Trump's account. Despite Musk's admission that automated bots were influencing the results of the user poll, the account was restored.

Musk had before insisted that the business will create a content moderation committee and that "no major content decisions or account reinstatements would happen before that council convenes." Nevertheless, Trump was re-platformed on Twitter by way of a user poll despite his earlier claims. It is not yet apparent whether the council has been established.

Rapper Kanye West, who had his account suspended after making anti-Semitic comments, got it restored about the same time that Musk acquired control of Twitter in October.

Why was Trump banned from Twitter in the first place?

Following the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2017, Twitter banned Trump, claiming that his posts were "very likely to incite and inspire individuals to mimic the criminal acts that took place at the US Capitol." After the violence, he was later banned from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Trump has urged his followers on Twitter to "fight like hell."

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It was an abrupt change from the tech industry's previous stance on Trump and other political figures, which had mostly been one of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Twitter and Facebook plainly acted in response to mounting demands for coercive action against them for allowing the President to spread misinformation and hatred on their platforms while in office by banning him.

Why has Trump's Twitter account been reinstated?

Musk created a Twitter poll on Saturday, 19 November, asking if Trump's account should be reactivated. Over 15 million people responded to the survey, and a narrow majority (51.8%) of them agreed that his account should be reinstated. But it's important to remember that, according to Musk, over 134 million people watched the poll, which means that only approximately 11% of them took part.

Notably, Musk said the poll was under attack by bots, which are automated programmes run by computers. One of Musk's main arguments for abandoning his $44 billion offer to purchase Twitter earlier this year was the purported existence of bots. Musk has expressed interest in reactivating Trump's account at the tumultuous time of his Twitter acquisition, in May.

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“I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” said Musk in May. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice… So I guess the answer is I would reverse the permaban.”

It's unsure if Trump, who was once dangerous tweeter, would begin using the app once more. His last tweet, which was posted on January 8 before his account was suspended, stated that he would not be present at Joe Biden's inauguration. Since then, Trump has joined Truth Social, a right-wing social media platform created by a business the former president owned.

Trump declared that he would continue using Truth Social whether or not Musk welcomed him back to Twitter in response to his remarks.

(With inputs from agencies)

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