Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has yet to see a profitable return on his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform, but he may have found his solution, Donald Trump.
The new Twitter CEO took to the platform on Friday evening to ask his followers if the former US president should be allowed to rejoin Twitter after being banned.
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Trump was previously barred from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the United States Capitol Building for allegedly inciting violence or for fear of using the platform in such a way.
The poll received an overwhelming response. Musk launched the poll shortly before 7 p.m., and it received millions of responses within hours.
Reinstate former President Trump
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022
Musk tweeted that eight hours later, responses were still coming in at a rate of one million per hour.
Trump poll getting ~1M votes/hour!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022
And, as of early Saturday morning, the majority of the 8.4 million people polled agreed that Trump, who was once a dominant presence on the platform, should be allowed to return.
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk added in a subsequent tweet, a Latin phrase that translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
Musk stated that while he has reinstated several accounts, including the satirical account Babylon Bee, his decision on Trump “has not yet been made.”
New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.
Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter.
You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
Since taking over the platform, Musk has faced near-constant criticism, as he has fired most of its senior leadership and staff, overhauled the platform’s subscription and verification system, and announced a number of changes to its moderation.
Musk assured in another tweet on Friday that he was navigating Twitter in order to prioritize “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.”
“Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from [the] rest of [the] Internet,” he wrote.
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“What should Twitter do next?” Musk openly asked in a tweet that received nearly 300,000 responses.
In terms of the platform, Musk claims that Twitter has “reached another all-time high” in terms of usage. Currently, Musk has 116.8 million Instagram followers.
