Elon Musk will reinstate Donald Trump's twitter profile after holding an online poll.
Elon Musk has confirmed he will reinstate former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account after putting the decision to a vote.
The controversial poll began on Saturday and saw roughly 52 per cent voting yes, after Musk claimed the survey was receiving 1 million votes per hour.
“Fascinating to watch Twitter Trump poll!,” Musk tweeted.
The billionaire followed with a Latin Phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, roughly translated to “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
Musk said in May he would consider removing Trump’s indefinite Twitter ban, after he was suspended in January 2021 in the wake of the Washington DC insurrection.
“Bot & troll armies might be running out of steam soon. Some interesting lessons to clean up future polls.”
The decision to reinstate Trump’s account has caused a major divide on Twitter.
Many users said they were “disgusted” by the decision, with some even vowing to leave the platform.
Elon Musk is battling a celebrity exodus, backlash from advertisers and new imposter accounts at Twitter. Photo / NZME montage, AP, Getty Images
“Horror show .. I’m out,” another person commented.
“Then I am done with Twitter. More people voted against him for president. Do the math,” another said.
However, there were others who praised Musk for the move, thanking him for reinstating Trump and branding it a “good call”.
That’s it that seals the deal. I’m no longer a twitter user. I’ve been a user since 2018 and have never been more disgusted. I officially will be deactivating my account. I’m going to Instagram where they know how to run a platform.
Last week,Trump announced his third tilt at the White House, confirming rumours he will run for US President in 2024.
On Tuesday night local time in Florida, Trump filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
“Ladies and gentleman, America’s comeback starts right now,” he said to applause as he spoke to the crowd at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“Three years ago when I left office … our nation was at the pinnacle of power and prestige. Striding into the future, confident and so strong,” he said.
The poll comes after Musk reversed the permanent Twitter bans on comedian Kathy Griffin, author Jordan Peterson and conservative satirical news website Babylon Bee.
Peterson was suspended after misgendering actor Elliot Page and the Babylon Bee was banned for misgendering an admiral for the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Rachel Levine.
Peterson posted that he agreed with the reversal of the Trump ban, tweeting: “It’s the right decision.”
It's the right decision. The Trump phenomenon must be played out and settled in the public sphere @elonmuskhttps://t.co/lGFoLMwKQQ
Kathy Griffin was banned on November 7 after changing her name to Elon Musk and impersonating the billionaire on the platform.
Musk’s latest move follows the decision of 1200 Twitter employees to flee the platform after the Tesla founder fired four top executives and half of the 7500-person staff.
Twitter’s new owner penned a memo on Friday to remaining employees “who actually writes software” to provide a bullet point summary of “what your code commits have achieved in the past six months.”
“Before doing so, please email me a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past 6 months,” the email reportedly said.
“These will be short, technical interviews that allow me to better understand the Twitter tech stack.”
Musk said he would video call engineers who worked remotely but “if possible, I would encourage you to fly to San Francisco to present in person.”
BREAKING: Elon Musk says Trump will be reinstated on Twitter. Trump responds by saying he’ll stay on Truth Social. Who knows what’ll happen, but if Trump returns, I have a request to the media: don’t give Trump’s Tweets attention. Don’t display them on TV. Just don’t.
Zoe Schiffer, the managing editor of Platformer who broke the news, said staff were told to provide Mr Musk with 10 screenshots of their “most salient lines of code”.
Schiffer pointed out that many engineers have left Twitter since the takeover.
As such there are fewer staff to keep the site ticking over.
Continuing his theme of frowning on staff who work from home, Musk said he could do video calls with engineers who worked remotely but only for those “who cannot physically get to Twitter HQ”.
“If possible, I would encourage you to fly to San Francisco to present in person.”
Musk said he would be in the office until midnight on Friday.
Last week, Musk sent the remaining staff an email saying “Twitter 2.0″ was going to be “extremely hardcore,” and if they didn’t want to “work long hours at high intensity,” they should indicate they wanted to leave by Thursday.
Staff had been directed to click a link to say they agreed to the punishing conditions he laid out for “Twitter 2.0″.
