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(Trends Wide) — Elon Musk said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account will not be restored before the US midterm elections next week, thus answering one of the biggest unknowns after his acquisition of the social media company.
Musk confirmed Wednesday morning that “Twitter will not allow anyone who has been removed from the platform for violating Twitter’s rules to return to the platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks.”
The billionaire owner of Twitter had previously said he would start a “content moderation council” and that no major decisions about content would be made until that council was established.
Before acquiring Twitter last week, Musk had pledged to roll back at least some of the platform’s content moderation policies and remove permanent account bans. He had also specifically said that he would restore the personal account of Trump, who was banned from the platform shortly after the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Trump, who previously used Twitter to deliver news, attack critics and set the government’s agenda, said he is glad the company is now in “safe hands” after the Musk acquisition, though he said he would not return to the company. platform. Instead, he plans to stay on his own social network, Truth Social. Trump had tens of millions more followers on Twitter than on Truth Social.
Musk’s comments hinting that the decision on Trump and other banned accounts will be delayed as the company works to reassure users and advertisers — who account for 90% of Twitter’s revenue — that the platform won’t turn into hell save yourself who can. Musk is also working with some urgency to boost Twitter’s revenue, even from a subscription, after securing a significant amount of financing to pay for the $44 billion acquisition.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk said: “Twitter’s content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, who will undoubtedly represent the civil rights community and groups facing hate-fueled violence.”
Twitter’s content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
In the few days since Musk took over as Twitter’s de facto owner and CEO, the platform has faced a groundswell of hate and other toxic content, prompting outcry from civil society groups and leading some advertisers to think twice before working on the platform.
In his tweet thread on Wednesday, Musk said he had met with representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, the National Association for the Advancement of Personnel of Color, Color of Change, the Asian American Foundation and several other groups to discuss “how to Twitter will continue to combat hate and harassment and enforce its election integrity policies.”
On Tuesday, Twitter’s chief security and integrity officer, Yoel Roth, said on the platform that the company has “focused on addressing the rise in hateful behavior on Twitter. We have made measurable progress, removing over 1,500 accounts and reducing impressions on this content to almost zero.” Both Musk and Roth have stressed that Twitter’s policies have not changed since the acquisition.
