Conservatives are calling on Elon Musk to restore former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account after the Tesla CEO acquired a 9.2 percent passive stake in the company.
Taking to Twitter, a number of individuals who support Trump asked for his account to be reinstated after it was permanently removed from the social networking site in January 2021, with the tech giant citing his alleged violation of the company’s “Glorification of Violence” policy.
Musk bought nearly 73.5 million shares of Twitter on March 14, 2022, and according to Twitter’s closing price on April 1, the billionaire’s stake in the company was worth $2.89 billion.
But while the businessman appeared to be focused this week on asking Twitter users if they would like an edit button on the platform, conservatives were pushing for Trump’s account to be brought back to the social media site, which has been repeatedly accused of censoring some minority and politically conservative viewpoints.
The company denies such claims.
“Step one - bring back President Trump! Step two - give everyone who has been banned a second chance. Step three - end all forms of political and other censorship,” he continued.
The Epoch Times has contacted a Musk spokesperson for comment.
Musk is a regular Twitter user and has 80.7 million followers.
A day later, sharing the results of the poll, Musk described Twitter as “the de facto public town square,” adding that “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.”
“What should be done?” he asked his followers.
Meanwhile, Trump’s new social media venture, Truth Social, launched in February 2022 on Apple’s app store.
The app is being touted as an alternative to Twitter that allows users to set up a profile, connect with other users, and access the “truth feed,” where they can “get the scoop on the latest thoughts and activities from the people, organizations, and news outlets” that interest them, according to the app store page.
