Following the news that Elon Musk had purchased 9.2% of Twitter’s stock, making him the company’s largest shareholder, speculation began that Musk’s influence would prompt some significant changes in the company, namely that it would cease being a bastion of censorship and return to its free speech roots.
It was nice to believe such a thing, and many people felt that the best way for the new, improved Twitter with Musk on its board would be the reinstatement of Donald Trump on the platform.
“Supporters of Donald Trump are urging Elon Musk to reinstate the ex-president’s Twitter account after Tesla’s billionaire boss became the social network’s biggest shareholder and got a seat on Twitter’s board,” the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) was one of many voices that called for Trump to be reinstated.
“Now that @ElonMusk is Twitter’s largest shareholder, it’s time to lift the political censorship,” she tweeted on Monday. “Oh… and BRING BACK TRUMP!”
Now that @ElonMusk is Twitter’s largest shareholder, it’s time to lift the political censorship.
Oh… and BRING BACK TRUMP!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) April 4, 2022
There are plenty of accounts that Twitter has banned over bogus claims of violating their terms of service, including myself. Most of us probably wouldn’t mind being reinstated on the platform, but Twitter has already shot down the idea that Musk would have the ability to do so.
“Our policy decisions are not determined by the board or shareholders, and we have no plans to reverse any policy decisions,” Twitter said in a statement. “As always, our board plays an important advisory and feedback role across the entirety of our service. Our day-to-day operations and decisions are made by Twitter management and employees.”
Even if somehow Musk could get Trump reinstated, would Trump even want to be?
While the obvious answer might be “of course he would want to return to Twitter,” I think rejoining Twitter is the last thing Trump should do.
Since leaving office, Trump has been building a multimedia company, complete with its own social media platform, Truth Social. For all the hype it’s received, it’s had a troubled launch, and, worse yet, Trump isn’t even using it. Glitches are inevitable for a site that was bound to attract a lot of interest right away, but Truth Social promised to be Trump’s new social media home.
I’ve had access to Truth Social for about a month now, and honestly, I haven’t used it much. One key reason is that there’s no web access yet, and as much as I use my phone, I work at my computer and like to share things that way. Not even after I was banned from Twitter did I use Truth Social a lot. Why? Because I have a bigger audience at GETTR, and it has web access. Truth Social also doesn’t have an Android app yet for people like Stephen Kruiser who don’t have an iPhone.
Of course, there’s a good chance if Trump was regularly posting on Truth Social, I’d be using it more. I bet a lot of people would, which brings me back to the issue of Twitter. If Trump wants Truth Social to be a long-term success, he has to use the platform and use it exclusively. If Trump were reinstated on Twitter, he would undermine the very purpose of Truth Social, which has branded itself as a free-speech alternative to Twitter.
Trump has essentially gone all in with a war on Big Tech, and rejoining Twitter would be the wrong move on his part.
