Once Elon Musk completes his acquisition of Twitter, he intends to reverse the social media platform's permanent ban on former President Donald Trump.
"I believe that banning Donald Trump was incorrect. "I think it was a mistake," Musk said at a Financial Times event on Tuesday, "because it alienated a significant section of the public and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump losing his voice."
Musk went on to call Twitter's move to block Trump "foolish," stating that it shattered public faith in the social media network.
"Blocking Trump from Twitter didn't silence him. It will intensify among the right. And this is why it's unethical and foolish," Musk explained.
According to Musk, Twitter should only remove accounts belonging to bots, spammers, and fraudsters on a permanent basis. When the content of other accounts breaches the rules, the corporation should resort to temporarily suspending the account or making the tweet inaccessible.
Musk also stated that his primary purpose in purchasing Twitter was to turn it into an open platform, but the Trump ban has splintered the user base. He cited the former US President's creation of Truth Social, a competitive social media network already drawing many conservative members.
"As a result, I believe this may be worse than having a single platform where everyone can discuss," Musk remarked.
"That doesn't mean people can say whatever they want," Tesla CEO Elon Musk subsequently clarified. "If they say anything that is unlawful or otherwise harmful to the world, perhaps they should be given a time-out." A brief suspension or that specific tweet should be hidden or have minimal impact."
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also weighed in on Musk's remarks. Dorsey agreed with Musk's perspective on never enforcing permanent bans on actual users in a pair of tweets.
"It shouldn't have been a commercial choice (to ban Trump)," Dorsey added. "And we should examine and adapt our judgments as needed. Permanent bans of persons are, as I indicated in that discussion, directionally incorrect."
Musk intends to purchase Twitter for $44 billion in order to control part of the social media platform's content regulation. He also wants to make Twitter's source code public, allowing anybody to examine it.
Anyone previously banned from Twitter will be able to return, according to his statements on Tuesday. Musk stressed, though, that he does not control Twitter and that the sale may take many months to complete. Meanwhile, Trump has stated that he has no plans to return to Twitter.
Musk also said that Twitter's existing regulations have a lefty tilt throughout the session. "I believe Twitter should be a lot more balanced. Because it is located in San Francisco, it currently has a strong left-wing tilt," he explained.
