Within an hour, millions answer Elon Musk’s Twitter poll on Trump’s reinstatement

More than 2 million Twitter users responded within the first hour on Friday to CEO Elon Musk’s poll asking him if he should reactivate former President Donald Trump’s account.

By 9:25 p.m., with 22 hours remaining, 57.9 percent had answered “yes.” to prompt.

Trump has been suspended from Twitter since January 8, 2021, two days after his supporters attacked the US Capitol. The company released a statement explaining the reason for the former president’s ban after two particularly “inflammatory tweets,” writing that the messages “could be mobilized by various audiences, including inciting violence.”

Earlier in the day Musk publicly reissued three accounts that had recently been suspended. Comedian Kathy Griffin lost her account after posing as Musk last week, while Jordan Peterson, a social media personality who was suspended in July, and The Babylon Bee, a satirical news website, suspended in March been blocked for transphobic tweets.

In his tweet In announcing Friday’s reinstatement, Musk wrote that the “Trump decision has not yet been made.”

Musk too announced an update to Twitter’s policy, saying the platform will uphold “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.”

“Negative/hate tweets are maximally devalued and demonstrated, so no advertising or other revenue for Twitter,” Musk wrote. “You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically search for it, which is no different from the rest of the internet.”

Trump’s return to the platform has been expected since Musk took over Twitter in late October. The new owner has publicly disagreed with the decision to freeze Trump’s account, saying during a spring press conference that the election was “morally wrong and downright stupid.”

The former president also praised Musk’s acquisition of the company, posting on his Truth social account that he was glad Twitter “is now in sane hands and no longer run by radical left-wing madmen and maniacs who genuinely hate our country.”

Musk told advisors in an open letter last month that he plans to implement some guidelines for what users could say on Twitter, adding that he doesn’t want it to turn into a “free-for-all hellscape.”

“Right now there is a great danger that social media will fragment into far-right and far-left echo chambers, which will create even more hate and divide our society,” Musk wrote in the letter.

However, Musk has already been praised by some far-right politicians since he acquired the platform and quickly reinstated Arizona State Assemblyman Mark Finchem in late October. Finchem, a 2020 refuser to vote, had reportedly flouted the “Twitter Rules” when he was banned from the post, although it’s unclear what he tweeted. Finchem lost the race for Arizona Secretary of State in the midterm elections, but has yet to concede.

Musk made several changes at the company in the first few weeks of his tenure, including the formation of a new content moderation council to oversee Twitter’s topic rules. Other changes include mass layoffs across the company and additions like “Blue Verified.”

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that over 1,200 full-time Twitter employees had resigned in response to an ultimatum Musk issued the previous day. Musk had told employees they had until 5 p.m. Thursday to sign up for Twitter 2.0 or accept a severance package.

The major reorganization has prompted some fears that Twitter may soon be defunct, although Musk has shown no sign of concern. As news of the company’s unrest broke Thursday night, Musk tweeted that the platform “just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage.”

news week has reached out to Trump’s press team for comment.