The world’s richest man and Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Elon Musk says a permanent ban on Twitter should be extremely rare.
While responding to a question in a virtual interview with Financial Times Future about the permanent suspension of Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter in January 2021.
Musk said if there are tweets that are “illegal or otherwise destructive to the world” there should be temporary suspension or the post should be made invisible.
“Victory would be the far-right 10 percent and the far left 10 percent are equally upset,” he said.
Elon Musk confirmed that he would overturn Donald Trump’s ban from the platform should his bid to buy Twitter is successful.
“I would reverse the permanent ban but I don’t own Twitter yet so this is not a thing that will happen,” he said.
In April, Elon signed $44bn (£34.5bn) in a bid to take over the Twitter board last month, but can only get a full take-over in the next two to three months.
Tesla owner said Twitter’s decision to ban the former US president was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid.”
He asked whether there should be a permanent ban at all.
In January 2021, Twitter permanently suspended the former US president’s account due to the risk of further incitement of violence” following the storming of the Capitol building in the United States.
Whereas, Trump has publicly declared that he would not be returning to Twitter, after launching his social media app, Truth.
Elon said the ban had not made Trump keep quiet but had made the former US president ‘amplify his voice’ through his platform.
Elon stated that “he and I are of the same mind that permanent bans should be extremely rare and reserved for accounts that are bots or scam accounts,” he said.
The US Press Secretary, Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration wants online platforms to protect freedom of speech but also ensure they are not forums for disinformation.
The majority of Musk’s riches are connected to Tesla stock, which has shed some value by $350bn since he planned to acquire shares in Twitter on 4 April.
